The global pandemic and home office made our life more sedentary. To counter that, the team of Heidelberg Instruments Nano in Zürich decided to support each other in being more active outdoors. This support came with a competitive twist: HI Nano announced a movement challenge. Any activities count, as long as they happen outdoors and at least 5 days a week. Two prizes were on stake: one for the top-mover, and another – for a randomly selected participant who has completed the challenge.

To make things even more fun, participants could also enter a photo-contest, with pictures showing their outdoors activities.

In two months, 20 contestants have logged 1060 hours of movement, and 11 have fulfilled the challenge conditions. Most popular physical activities were walking/hiking (550 h); cycling (186 h); skiing/snowboarding (76 h); playing with kids (ca. 73 h); and skateboarding (51 h).

Our R&D engineer Jonas Vergés has won the contest with 170 hours of hiking and rock climbing, next contestants coming close with 162 and 120 hours. Martin Frodl was drawn from among the remaining participants, with 61 hour of walking, hiking and running.

The best picture was chosen by the entire Heidelberg Instruments team, with Jonas winning again. Well deserved!