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About Me

Welcome!

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.

My Time

1. Open Access to Renewable Energies

Since 2012 I've been working with Solar Fire toward initiating a global wave of solar enterpreneurship.

2. Practical Tools for Change

Building web-platforms and systems with purpose that connect actors, empower people and facilitate change.

Urs Riggenbach

Selection of speaking engagements on camera or in front of impact-motivated crowds.

Idea, comment, interested to collaborate?

Contact Urs Riggenbach:
info@ursrig.com, 079 918 0663


Idee, Kommentar, interesse an Zusammenarbeit?

Bitte kontaktieren Sie mich:
Urs Riggenbach, info@ursrig.com, 079 918 0663

Presenting Lytefire - Swiss Alps

Presenting GoSol.solar - Finland

Presenting GoSol.solar - 2000 W Verein Solothurn

Freestyle Improv Acapella - Impact Hub Zurich

 

Urs Riggenbach

As Entrepreneur I support and enjoy building and growing businesses
from the ground up.

I get involved in things that make sense to me, have impact or bring learning and creation with it.

Lytefire / Solar Fire Concentration Ltd
CEO, Board Director & Co-Founder

June 2012 - now
Solar thermal technology solutions in the humanitarian and industrial sector.
 Technological development, project management, IT consulting, web and communication.

GoSol.solar
CEO, Board Director & Co-Founder

June 2012 - now
Launch of innovative platform for the spread of solar thermal energy solutions.

Autodesk Inc, San Francisco
Pier 9 Impact Residency

February 2017 - May 2017
 Industrial CNC machine training (Waterjet, Lasercuting, 5 axis CNC)
 Rapid prototyping using state of the art CNC machinery

vonsalis communications
Lead Developer

2014 - 2022
Development of custom web-platforms for the Zurich-based environmental communications agency.

UrsRig Consulting
Founder and CEO

2014 - now
Creation of web-development agency of impact and sustainability projects and beyond.

WWF Switzerland
Swiss Civil Service

February 2013 - July 2013
 Development of exhibition on renewable energies.

Oekozentrum Langenbruck, Switzerland
Swiss Civil Service

August 2013 - February 2014
 Support in research and development.

Sustainable Design/Build, Yestermorrow, USA
Semester course in sustainable design and building practices

 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.

College of the Atlantic, USA
Bachelor of Arts in Human Ecology

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

United World College, India
International Baccalaureate, IB

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

Born

1990

Urs Riggenbach

As Developer I build scalable, secure and performing solutions in Apps,
on the Web and on the Cloud.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Portfolio

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!

Clients & Users

Projects

Urs Riggenbach

I like creating content and sharing ideas. My blog contains notes across topics that may be helpful to others.

OpenLabel: Product Information from the Crowd

Posted Saturday 12 September 2015 by Urs Riggenbach.

I’ve been waiting for an open platform where people can share the "what to know" about any product. When I buy something I want to know what impact it has, on my health, the workers, the planet.

I want to know this information from people I trust, not from the corporations themselves that don’t want me to worry about "what kind of aerosol is in that deodorant and it’s climate impact" but rather "how this is going to increase my sex-appeal."

Finally the platforms that help us gather and use consumer sourced producer information are emerging. With OpenLabel, https://theopenlabel.com/, and www.wiki-products.org (German) we are entering a buying culture where if I have the choice between two products and I happen to care about animal rights I can make a better choice. Better might not be good, but if we’re sticking with consumerism let’s send the right signals up that chain.

When advertisement and mass media lose their power, we will probably stuff this void with real information. I’m looking forward to that.


Unattended Upgrades on Debian

Posted Wednesday 24 June 2015 by Urs Riggenbach.

Unattended upgrades on Debian allow to sync/update any repository and install the upgraded packages automatically. This makes sense for packages in the security repository.

The following commands enable unattended security upgrades on Debian 7 and 8. Note that it is not enough to just install the "unattended-upgrades" package.

apt-get install unattended-upgrades apt-listchanges
dpkg-reconfigure -plow unattended-upgrades

By default it runs daily, sends a mail to root. Follow the Debian Wiki for further teaking: https://wiki.debian.org/UnattendedUpgrades


Enable Browser Caching with NGINX

Posted Friday 19 June 2015 by Urs Riggenbach.

server
listen 80;

location /

expires 30d;
add_header Pragma public;
add_header Cache-Control "public";