About us

How the VUNA project with the city of Durban in South Africa became Vuna GmbH.

Vuna means "harvest" in isiZulu, the Zulu language of South Africa. VUNA originated as a project in 2010, when the city of Durban (South Africa) sought for a use for large quantities of separately collected urine. VUNA subsequently evolved between Eawag, eThekwini (Greater Durban), and other partner organizations. The VUNA urine recycling technology for nutrient recovery—or "harvesting"—from urine has proven successful. In 2016, the former VUNA project became Vuna GmbH.

Our team

Bastian Etter

Bastian Etter

Bastian has worked on decentralised water and wastewater treatment for over two decades. He coordinated the VUNA Project in South Africa and Switzerland. Before that, he led the STUN Project in Nepal. Bastian graduated as an environmental engineer from EPFL and is passionate about practical work. He has been the head of Vuna GmbH since 2016.

Nadège de Chambrier

Nadège de Chambrier

Nadège enjoys working between the lab and the construction site. As an environmental engineer from ETH Zurich, she contributed to the Eawag project on the self-sufficient toilet and later specialized in wastewater technologies in India. Currently, she manages various urine treatment projects and is driving the industrialization of the Vuna plant. She is also a co-founder of VunaNexus.

Kai Udert

Kai Udert

Kai is the scientific expert with sound knowledge on wastewater streams and process technology. He has been working on urine treatment for two decades, since pioneering the topic at Eawag as his PhD research project. For several years, he also deepened his research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Kai is the Scientific Advisor of Vuna GmbH.

Lukas Ulrich

Lukas Ulrich

Lukas worked for Eawag for many years on international projects, particularly in the planning of decentralized solutions for urban sanitation. As an environmental engineer and co-author of the Compendium of Sanitation Systems and Technologies, he is intimately familiar with the possibilities in the wastewater sector. At Vuna, Lukas plans and oversees alternative toilet and water treatment systems of all kinds.

Basile Weber

Basile Weber

Basile holds an MSc in environmental engineering from EPFL. During his master's thesis and his community service at Sandec (Eawag), he gained initial experience in the field of decentralized water treatment and worked for several months on a project in Nepal. At Vuna, he now plans and builds alternative wastewater systems.

Chiara Lauber

Chiara Lauber

Chiara is interested in closing material cycles and developing wastewater systems that minimize environmental impact and enable the reuse of greywater. At Vuna, she designs water treatment systems. She holds an MSc in environmental engineering with a specialization in environmental technology from ETH Zurich.

Helena Horber

Helena Horber

Helena studied environmental engineering at ZHAW and focused her bachelor's thesis on optimizing a decentralized wastewater treatment plant using planted biofilters. At Vuna, she now plans and implements alternative (waste)water systems and also supports logistics.

Luzius Etter

Luzius Etter

With a diploma in Business Innovation and as a certified multimedia designer, Luzius controls the interface between the economic development of Vuna GmbH, customer relations, and marketing. He works as a consultant in strategy and operations.

Pavel Varbanets

Pavel Varbanets

With a PhD in international relations, Pavel Varbanets at Vuna is involved in the design and development of the company's website and online shop, the integration of third-party IT services, the promotion of goods and services on the Internet, Internet advertising and other IT-related projects.

Zoe Holzmann

Zoe Holzmann

Zoe studies environmental engineering and resource management at HTWG Konstanz. It is important to her to use resources sustainably and develop future-proof solutions in the field of wastewater. Through her previous work as a carpenter, she brings practical thinking and manual skills to her projects. At Vuna, she works on optimizing systems and supports various projects in planning and implementation.

Former employees

Philippe Reymond, Carina Doll, Iris Hansen, Nadine Antenen, Andreas Keller, Maximilian Grau, Viviane Furrer, Evelin Vogler, Cécile Bettex, Mariline Attenhofer, Ariane Schertenleib, Lena Xue, Till-Baptiste Römmelt, Tabea Vischer

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