This website uses cookies, Google Analytics and social media plugins. Under 'Privacy policy', you can learn more about how we use them and how we process your personal data.
There you will also find more information about how you can change your settings. By continuing to use our website, you consent to the corresponding processing of your personal data.
Our Vision
AVINA Stiftung nurtures systemic change by empowering pioneers who reshape our connection to nature, consciousness, and community.
Our values
Project Partners
Who we are
Dr. Viktoria Schmidheiny
Chair of the board
Marcel Nauer
Member of the board
Amadeus Zschunke
Member of the board
Christoph Weichselbaum
Managing director
Laurenz Werner
Managing Director
Gina Wiestner
Program Manager
Dr. Stephan Schmidheiny — Founder
Dr. Stephan Schmidheiny, founder of Avina Stiftung, is an entrepreneur, sustainability pioneer and philanthropist who became one of the leading voices in the international debate on sustainable development.
Born in 1947 into Switzerland's Schmidheiny family, he inherited leadership of the Swiss Eternit Group at the age of 28. While scientific understanding of asbestos-related risks was still evolving, he launched an innovation programme in 1976 to develop asbestos-free products and invested heavily in workplace safety and modern production. The first asbestos-free Eternit products reached the market in the early 1980s — years before the first European asbestos bans came into force (Switzerland 1990, Italy 1992, Germany 1993, EU 2005). This transformation, along with the eventual sale of the group at the end of the 1980s, absorbed much of the fortune he had inherited.
He rebuilt his means through a new entrepreneurial chapter, developing a diversified group of companies over the following decades. Among his most notable moves were the 1985 restructuring of SMH — today's Swatch Group — with Nicolas Hayek, and, in Latin America, his pioneering of environmentally and socially responsible enterprises. It was these later investments that built the financial foundation for his philanthropy. Invited to contribute a business perspective to the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, he founded what became the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), introduced the concept of eco-efficiency, and presented his influential book Changing Course.
In 1994 he established Avina Stiftung on a simple conviction: that entrepreneurial thinking, applied with long-term commitment, can help solve complex social and environmental challenges. As a social entrepreneur, he sought a return measured in societal value rather than financial gain.
In 2017 Stephan Schmidheiny stepped down from the board. Under the leadership of his wife, Dr. Viktoria Schmidheiny, President of the Board, Avina Stiftung sharpened its focus on healthy, sustainably produced food in Switzerland and Europe — carrying forward the values and vision that inspired its founder.