This site shares about my life and work. Most of what I do is devoted to practical solutions to avoid a global climate crisis. Acting from a point of compassion for all living things (or at least trying to!), I'm always ready to be challenged on how to maximize impact. Passionate about developing "whatever is missing" I'm building towards a sustainable future for all.
Since 2012 I've been working with Solar Fire toward initiating a global wave of solar enterpreneurship.
Building web-platforms and systems with purpose that connect actors, empower people and facilitate change.
Contact Urs Riggenbach:
info@ursrig.com, 079 918 0663
Bitte kontaktieren Sie mich:
Urs Riggenbach, info@ursrig.com, 079 918 0663
I get involved in things that make sense to me, have impact or bring learning and creation with it.
June 2012 - now
Solar thermal technology solutions in the humanitarian and industrial sector.
– Technological development, project management, IT consulting, web and communication.
June 2012 - now
Launch of innovative platform for the spread of solar thermal energy solutions.
February 2017 - May 2017
– Industrial CNC machine training (Waterjet, Lasercuting, 5 axis CNC)
– Rapid prototyping using state of the art CNC machinery
2014 - 2022
Development of custom web-platforms for the Zurich-based environmental communications agency.
2014 - now
Creation of web-development agency of impact and sustainability projects and beyond.
February 2013 - July 2013
– Development of exhibition on renewable energies.
August 2013 - February 2014
– Support in research and development.
– Instructors from the fields of architecture, construction and joinery/Carpentry
– Application of principles of sustainability and sustainable design in the architecture of a "tiny house" of 227 square feet.
– Project planning and management with different build milestones.
– Construction of entire tiny house, see it in New York Post "Tiny House 227".
– Study and implementation of HVAC systems.
September 2008 - June 2012
– Relevant Coursework: Agroecology, Economic Development, International Water Resource Management, Physics II, Collaborative Leadership, Fieldwork: Seminar in Community-based Research, Documentary Film Making, Webdesign, Fixing Food Systems, Sustainability, Local Production - Global Collaboration.
– Senior project in Nepal installing renewable energy framework at rural school
– Spanish proficiency during project-stay in Yucatán, Mexico
– Davis UWC Scholar: full scholarship awarded
September 2006 - May 2008
– International Baccelaurate (IB) with major biology and economics.
– Course language English.
– Extended essay: Sugarcane Cultivation in the Mulshi Valley, India.
– Full Scholarship from the Swiss Association for UWC
1990
I work in a network of curated developers, designers and content creators, so each project happens in a project-specific team. For the Canton of Bern I built the interactive App "Biz-Links" that helps people find the right career. As a progressive web app it is simultaneously avaiable on Android and iOS devices, as well as directly reachable in the browser by link. My full portfolio is further below.
Selection of projects in the fields of web-development, internet security, Android-app development, webstores, crowdfunding and campaign sites, online community platforms and financial modeling. Most projects are based on a security and scalability optimized tech-stack based on open-source SPIP, LXC and GNU/Linux.
Project idea and need a tech-team? Let's talk!
Creation of website, graphic identity and communications material, in cooperation with SiSustainable.
Creation of website, graphic identity and communications material, in cooperation with SiSustainable.
SRF’s (Swiss National News Service) Project "Mission B": Templating, UX, Backend, Database Architecture, Scalability and Security to 150k hourly users.
Project implemented for SRF by von salis communication.
Visit site: www.missionb.ch
Custom website built for Solar Fire Concentration Ltd.
Project management, prototyping of first solar sauna design, creation of multimedia material and crowdfunding website.
Templating, Database and CMS Implementation. Development of CRM solution for members management.
Cooperation with Adrienne Pearson
Development of Web-App for tablets and phones for 12 job information centers. Custom CMS for editing and linking national job information.
Backend and map frontent implementation of event creation and signup process for thousands of events.
Cooperation with von salis communication
Online Platform NatureChallenge.swiss: Front-End and Backend fullstack development.
Project implemented for Festival der Natur by von salis communication.
Visit site: www.naturechallenge.swiss
Systems migration
Migration of 8000 news articles between Typo3 and Drupal systems. Cooperation with Mischwald (http://www.mischwald.ch)
Visit new site: www.zeitpunkt.ch
Creation of website showcasing contemporary and past worldchangers.
Creation of website for Rosegghof organic farm in Solothurn, Switzerland.
Webdesign and implementation of online-payment gateway.
Pet project to build a social networking platform for UWC graduates. Scaled to 3000 users over few months.
Senior project as part of my Bachelor’s at College of the Atlantic.
Here is a presentation I gave part of graduation week at College of the Atlantic, 2012. You can also read my senior project report as PDF, here.
Creation of website for Zürcher Buchhändler- und Verlegerverein ZBVV.
Workflow-optimizing task management system based on SPIP framework.
Financial simulation software to model business plans.
Betreuung Webseite floretia.ch für Vonsalis Communications.
Web-App with Push-Notifications for the management of livestock.
Moving Web-App to native tablets for 12 job information centers. Custom CMS for editing and linking national job information.
Sustainable Tampere, Finnish sustainability blog.
Interactive website for publishing of students’ content.
Social-Media Kampagne und Webseite in Zusammenarbeit mit Vonsalis Communications.
Hosting und iT-Support der Webseite der fideriser Heuberge.
Creation of crowdfunding website for NeoLoco solar bakery and roastery in Normandie.
French community blog.
Website to order organic seedlings in Tampere, Finland.
Implementation of SPIP-based Website for an ecologic project.
Serverinfrastruktur, automatisierte Backups, Aufsetzten Drupal Entwicklungsumgebung für Vonsalis Communications.
Posted Sunday 29 May 2022 by Urs Riggenbach.
Nautilus scripts are a versatile way to automate daily tasks such as reducing PDF sizes, converting pictures to PDFs, adding notes to documents, etc.
The below files help creating PDFs, with varying degrees of compression.
"Normal" is a compression to 300dpi, which will still allow the PDF to be printed and is the best choice in most cases. When a higher compression level is needed, the "Smaller" and "Smallest" scripts can be useful.
First run:
mkdir .local/share/nautilus/scripts/
Then create the 3 files:
nano .local/share/nautilus/scripts/PDF\ Resize\ Normal
#!/bin/bash echo -e "$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS" | xargs -i gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dPDFSETTINGS=/printer -dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH -sOutputFile="{}"_min.pdf "{}"
nano .local/share/nautilus/scripts/PDF\ Resize\ Smaller
#!/bin/bash echo -e "$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS" | xargs -i gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dPDFSETTINGS=/ebook -dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH -sOutputFile="{}"_min.pdf "{}"
nano .local/share/nautilus/scripts/PDF\ Resize\ Smallest#!/bin/bash echo -e "$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS" | xargs -i gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dPDFSETTINGS=/screen -dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH -sOutputFile="{}"_min.pdf "{}"
Lastly, make the files executable.
chmod +x .local/share/nautilus/scripts/*
Now, the three scripts shouldbe available to you from the context menu on any file in your nautuilus file browser in GNOME.
