Salome Thommen: The alchemist of odds and ends.
Text: Evelyn WeissheimLiving sustainably works best when it fits seamlessly into daily routine. Salome Thommen wants, above all, to inspire people.
Key takeaways
- Salome Thommen combines sustainability, craft and community as a co-manager of the OFFCUT material market in Basel.
- Her interdisciplinary studies at the University of Basel brought together her interests in natural sciences and humanities.
- At OFFCUT, she helps give surplus materials a second life while working with customers, colleagues and volunteers.
Spools of thread, rolls of fabric, an array of woven baskets, colorful paper and endless possibilities. Located in the Dreispitz district in Basel, OFFCUT is piled high with materials that would likely otherwise have been thrown away. Here, they have a chance at a second life. Salome Thommen has been working for Basel’s material market since 2017 and has been co-manager since 2023. An environmental scientist, she has forged a role that is as multifaceted as she is — a role that combines sustainability, craft and community.
Even as a bachelor’s student, Thommen lived a varied life, studying biology and social sciences, combining natural sciences with humanities. When she continued on to her master’s, she was expected to choose one of the two disciplines. And yet “I couldn’t and didn’t want to focus on just one area when I found both so fascinating,” she says. And so she registered for the transfaculty Master’s in Sustainable Development. This was “the perfect fit.” The program provided the range of perspectives she was looking for: Rather than teaching a single discipline, it took inspiration from various faculties and lecturers. Even business and economics, a subject that was never on her shortlist, proved fascinating. What she remembers most, however, is the interaction with her fellow students, who came from very different disciplines.
From lecture hall to material paradise
For her master’s thesis, Thommen explored an example of sustainable commerce: the Birsmattehof vegetable box subscription popular among Basel residents.
Today, her job at the OFFCUT creative material market allows her to fully live out her love of the practical: “My wish list of personal passion projects grows faster than I can keep up with!” she says with a grin. Since she began working at the market in 2017, she has, as she puts it, “reinvented myself almost every year,” first as a project assistant, expanding OFFCUT to other Swiss cities, then in sales, procurement and administration. Today, she shares the manager’s role with Simone Steinegger and Evelyne Monney, each one working to their strengths.
Thommen, for example, is responsible for administration and finances. She also helps out regularly in the sales department and warehouse. Here, she meets the people who make this place so special: regular customers fine-tuning all sorts of projects, older couples bringing in sewing equipment they no longer need, children whose eyes light up at the treasure trove of craft materials, fashion design students on the hunt for that one special piece, and a large team of volunteers who lend a hand in the shop.
Inspiring, not dictating
Thommen’s understanding of sustainability has continued to grow in these surroundings. The theory she learned while at university has evolved into something with everyday relevance. For her, convincing people to act sustainably has nothing to do with telling them off. “It’s much more about inspiration and role models, about respect for our fellow humans, the environment and the systems in which we all live.”
Thommen has made a conscious decision not to make concrete plans for the future. She prefers to seize the opportunities that present themselves. After all, her journey has been organic so far. At the end of the conversation, when asked to describe herself in one word, she replies: “Multifaceted.” Then, after a pause, she adds: “And open to everything that’s still to come.”
More articles in this issue of UNI NOVA (November 2026).