Mainz. The with 500,000 Euro supremely endowed European environmental award was presented for the 12th time. Federal President Horst Köhler honoured the North Rhine-Westphalian entrepreneur Alfred Heinrich Jung (49) and the Hamburg microbiologist Professor Garabed Antranikian (53) with the German Environmental Award of the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU, Osnabrueck) in Mainz today. "If we want to shape our country and our world towards a promising future, we need people like you. People, that take our future into their own hand with imagination and enthusiasm, with commitment and energy,” underlined Germany's head of state. With the award, the DBU acknowledges the achievements of two environmental pioneers. Alfred H. Jung, founder and head of the medium-sized company Jungtec, received the award for innovative gaskets, through which an immense environmental relief is possible and health dangers are reduced. Professor Antranikian, head of the Institute for Technical Microbiology of the Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg, was awarded for his work in field of the white biotechnology with which chemical processes can be altered in a way that the environment is considerably relieved. Professor Hannelore (Loki) Schmidt (85, Hamburg) received an honorary prize for her life's work.

Köhler: "Sustainability is the concept of the future"

In order to maintain the importance of environmental protection among the public, its advantages in the everyday life had to be clearly shown. President Köhler: "More quality of life but also future-promising jobs. Economic growth, that is not charged to the environment". Köhler said, for him sustainability was "the concept of the future because it answers the question how we can - here and elsewhere in the world - safe the future generations their natural, economic and social life bases.” The chances of sustainable development should be moved into the focus of public attention: "It is not about relinquishment but about profit. Not about limitation but about responsibility. Not about spoon-feeding but about freedom", emphasised Köhler.

"I do think nothing of the contrast between economy and ecology", Köhler says

The President took up a definite position on the topic environmental protection and economy. There were voices, "that ,in view of high unemployment, low economic growth and a global competition, called environmental protection a millstone round Germany's neck. The for a long time outgrown prejudice of a contrast between economy and ecology suddenly appeared again. "I do think nothing of this contrast", he emphasised.

"It is worthwhile creating jobs in Germany"

In his eulogy on the award winners, Uwe Leonhardt, member of the jury as well as owner and manager of the Saxon company LG Thermo-Technologies, emphasised that Germany suffered from the still lacking public acceptance for a change. However, this was urgently necessary. Here the entrepreneurs were entitled to an important social responsibility. They would have to take over the top of the reform movement and live the awakening with their own actions. Mr Leonhardt: "With our willingness to take risks, but also our courage and our leadership skills we can show our staff and the public that it is worthwhile creating jobs in Germany.” All levels of society would have to join this entrepreneurial leadership model. Uwe Leonhardt: "Our way of thinking, our behaviour must change and must follow the premise: what is the best for our company, for our society - and not, what is the best for me."

Jung - "a convincing example"

The award winner Alfred Jung was a convincing example that it was not single goal of a company to exclusively maximise the profit. After he had had to face how two close people died of cancer, he started up his own business to improve the world a little bit. With a revolutionary, forward-looking product, that was about multiple times more effectively than the competitive ones, he faced the market and he was able to survive in competition. His simple solutions are of a big economic and ecological sustainability and proved that the key of success of manufacturing companies consists of developing innovative products, that were profitable producible and in the ideal case world-wide marketable.

Antranikian - "an ideal modern researcher"

Garabed Antranikian was a truthful pioneer in the field of the white biotechnology. He was an ideal modern researcher, who didn't try to isolate himself in his ivory tower, but looked for a dialogue and the co-operation with the economy and geared his projects to the needs of industrial use. "Your 106 in co-operation with the economy produced patents speak well for themselves. The high-grade materials, that you use, are micro organisms and animal cell cultures. Not only they correspond to the model of sustainability, but they are an economically more efficient and superior alternative to many chemical processes as well.”

Video messages for Loki Schmidt

In video messages, the director of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and award winner of 2002, Professor Dr. Klaus Töpfer, Hamburg's former first mayor Henning Voscherau, the author Siegfried Lenz and the award winner of 1999, Professor Dr. Wilhelm Barthlott, acknowledged the commitment of Loki Schmidt for the nature conservation. They underlined the honorary prize winner was no hobby botanist but a highly qualified colleague. Long before the international environmental conference of Rio de Janeiro (1992) she had explored the biological diversity and demanded scientific protection concepts for endangered plants and ecosystems. She fought for the protection of the Creation and showed the people how to make a contribution to save the nature for future generations.

Trittin: Trading with environmental products, Germany is in second place worl-wide

The Federal minister for the environment, Jürgen Trittin underlined, that, trading with environmental products, Germany was in second place world-wide. 1.3 million people worked in the field of environmental protection, the number of environmental companies has grown between 1997-2001 from 1,000 to 4,700. The DBU contributed to this success whilst offering them incentives to set their strategy on ecological products and production processes. He was confident that the market of environmental products and services would belong to the most strongly growing economic branch of industries of the 21st century.

Enormous potential for environmental technologies

An ambitious ecological politics was the prerequisite for it, like Germany's success as biggest operator, manufacturer and exporter of wind power stations showed. Exactly the renewable energies had an enormous potential. When this industry presently earned 10 billion Euro in Germany, this effect could multiply when more and more countries followed China, that wanted to earn in 2010 about 10% of its huge electricity requirement from renewable sources. The trade with modern environmental technologies served not only the own national economy but also such countries, that required these technologies in order to solve their needs for energy and their environmental problems.

Giving ecological topics an up-to-date quality

Hubert Weinzierl, deputy chairman of the DBU board, had officially welcomed the approximately 1,500 guests of the ceremony in the Rheingoldhalle in Mainz. As further examples of the DBU activities, he underlined the foundation's special commitment for youth projects or for the scholarship programme. The young generation was very quite ready to act and to commit itself to environmental protection and other important tasks of public welfare. Hubert Weinzierl: "We can not confirm the description of a largely uninterested and disenchanted youth." It only was important to give the topics an up-to-date quality, to combine the interest of the youth for modern technology with a careful dealing with natural raw materials and to flexibly communicate the pleasure coming out of such actions.