More than a campaign
What the pilot region of Davos proves – and how your destination becomes the next chapter
ünschi is not a Davos marketing idea, but a movement meant to grow beyond Davos: turning local production into a Switzerland-wide practice, region by region. Davos is not the destination, but the pilot. What began in 2019 with a single potato field now supplies restaurants, hotels and major events such as the WEF with regional water, vegetables and a story nobody had to make up. During the 2026 Annual Meeting alone, more than 6,400 litres of water were served locally instead of from bottles, saving six pallets of PET and around one tonne of CO2 – measured, not claimed.
In 2019, Martin Hänggi, owner of the organic shop Bioladen Davos, noticed that potatoes in the Landwasser Valley were coming from faraway countries, even though the slopes around Davos-Klosters had been full of potato fields until around 70 years ago. On the original sandy fields in Davos Frauenkirch, he started growing potatoes again. No rebranding, no slogan – a field. The name says it all: “ünschi” is Davos dialect for “ours”.
That is the difference to a campaign. Every new sustainability campaign starts from zero and has to earn trust again and again. A movement follows a logic of participation: producers, restaurants, schools and businesses become part of the story, not just its audience. That way, it keeps telling itself through everyone who is part of it.
This is exactly what guests expect today. Sustainability is no longer taken on trust, it gets checked. Guests don’t want less tourism; they want their stay to be visibly invested in something that lasts. A local production and supply structure delivers exactly that: it is infrastructure, not restriction.
Contents of the white paper:
- The playbook in 6 steps, from first inventory to first visible appearance
- How funding works without a major sponsor or grant application
- The 90-day roadmap to get started
- The self-check: is your destination ready?
Five principles we learned while building ünschi.
01
Start with what’s already there.
Not with a strategy paper, but with a field, a spring, a business that already produces locally.
02
A movement needs a face, not a slogan.
With Martin Hänggi, ünschi has a real person at its origin – more credible than any campaign character.
03
Funding comes from two sources at once, not from one grant.
In-kind contributions from companies such as BWT, Richnerstutz and Fill-me carry the big moments of visibility – smaller donations from the local community carry the groundwork.
04
One flagship product beats ten initiatives at once.
“ünsches Wasser” replaces a single everyday product – and makes the whole movement tangible in a single glass.
05
Numbers keep telling the story when the anecdote ends.
Litres, francs, kilograms of CO2: if you measure, you can report – even when the origin story is long familiar.
How your destination becomes part of the ünschi movement.
Davos is the first region to provide this proof – not the only one meant to. What carries over is not the product, but the principle: taking local resources seriously and turning them into visible, measurable value. Every destination that joins doesn’t become a copy of Davos, but the next chapter of the same movement. The white paper shows how another destination can join: in 6 steps, with the people who really need to be at the table, and with a checklist for the first 90 days.
Five principles we learned while building ünschi.
01
Start with what’s already there.
Not with a strategy paper, but with a field, a spring, a business that already produces locally.
02
A movement needs a face, not a slogan.
With Martin Hänggi, ünschi has a real person at its origin – more credible than any campaign character.
03
Funding comes from two sources at once, not from one grant.
In-kind contributions from companies such as BWT, Richnerstutz and Fill-me carry the big moments of visibility – smaller donations from the local community carry the groundwork.
04
One flagship product beats ten initiatives at once.
“ünsches Wasser” replaces a single everyday product – and makes the whole movement tangible in a single glass.
05
Numbers keep telling the story when the anecdote ends.
Litres, francs, kilograms of CO2: if you measure, you can report – even when the origin story is long familiar.
How your destination becomes part of the ünschi movement.
Davos is the first region to provide this proof – not the only one meant to. What carries over is not the product, but the principle: taking local resources seriously and turning them into visible, measurable value. Every destination that joins doesn’t become a copy of Davos, but the next chapter of the same movement. The white paper shows how another destination can join: in 6 steps, with the people who really need to be at the table, and with a checklist for the first 90 days.
From paper to project? One workshop is enough to see the first step.
Still curious?
Live is the most powerful communication.
