Climate activism: UBS branch sprayed with orange paint

Police officers control Renovate Switzerland activists who threw paint at the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation, in Bern, Switzerland, Friday, July 1, 2022. Anthony Anex

Two Renovate Switzerland activists sprayed orange paint on the façade of the UBS branch in Lausanne. Their action took place outside the building on Place St-François at around midday on Monday.

The two activists were arrested by the police, as was a third supporter accompanying them. Renovate Switzerland explained in a press release that it wanted to “highlight” the fact that the bank “is not sufficiently renovating the buildings it owns”. It had carried out a similar action a fortnight ago on another UBS building in Geneva.

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Renovate Switzerland believes that “neither the government nor the major landlords are making serious progress on the thermal renovation” of buildings, despite the fact that this “effective and consensual” measure can reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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