“High Time for Innovations” – STUVA Prize Goes to Felix Amberg
![Felix Amberg: “For many years, there has been no dramatic technological progress […] even BIM is not the technological quantum leap in tunnelling”.](https://www.tunnel-online.info/imgs/1/5/1/4/3/4/8/IMG_0959.JPG-add117657fbaa16d.jpeg)
At the opening ceremony, STUVA chairman Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Martin Ziegler awarded the STUVA Prize. The winner this year is Dipl.-Ing. ETH Felix Amberg, president of the Swiss Amberg Group. Felix Amberg took over the company in 1995 from his father, the founder Rudolf Amberg, and has steadily built up the company. Amberg was also not only president of the Swiss Tunnelling Society but also for many years a member of the ITA board, a founding member of the ITA CET Foundation and for was many years on the support committee of the STUVA.
In his acceptance speech, Felix Amberg permitted himself a look back in two regards. His comment on his own suitability as winner was a semi-serious "my God, am I that old?" But he didn't only see signs of growing old in himself. Quite without irony, he also described the innovation capacity of the tunnelling industry: “For many years, there has been no dramatic technological progress […] even BIM is not the technological quantum leap in tunnelling”. The impact on the climate alone should be a sufficient impetus: “30 per cent of the worldwide CO2 footprint is due to the construction industry – we should have developed new technologies long ago. […] It is high time for sustainable, future-oriented innovations.”
