There are two winners of the German Environmental Award of the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) in 2010: the award, worth 245,000 euros respectively, will go to the founders of the company Clean-Lasersysteme (Herzogenrath), Dr. Winfried Barkhausen (51) and Edwin Büchter (41), and the co-managing director of the Institute for Applied Ecology (Freiburg), Dr Rainer Griesshammer (57). Barkhausen/Büchter are winning the prize for their mobile laser technology. It cleans technical surfaces with light in an environmentally-friendly manner, while also offering economic advantages and optimising industrial safety. Griesshammer is being presented with the award because he has given impetus to eco-political solutions and made the issue of sustainability an integral part of everyday life. The former president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev (79), will be awarded a special prize of 10,000 euros for his international efforts to protect the environment. The prizes will be presented by German President Christian Wulff on 31 October in Bremen.
Laser technology a “quantum leap” in environmental conservation
Speaking first of Barkhausen and Büchter, DBU Secretary General Dr Fritz Brickwedde explained how dust, noise and offensive odours were still usual today when cleaning technical surfaces, for example in the metal industry. He said the laser technology developed by Barkhausen/Büchter used the cleansing medium of light to enable the creation of applications for which there had formerly been no satisfactory technical solutions. No cleansing agents to dispose of as with conventional procedures, the possibility of sorting and recycling components removed from old coatings, a reduction of up to 87 percent in energy consumption – the laser-cleaning technique of the 2010 prizewinners was a “quantum leap” particularly with regard to environmental conservation, Brickwedde said. He also stressed the technique’s clear economic advantages, with savings of up to 70 percent being possible. In addition, he mentioned the benefit to workers in that the method uses no solvents, which are harmful to the environment and human health. Brickwedde: “A classic example of how innovative environmental technology reduces damage to the environment and creates jobs.”
Griesshammer is “a versatile, forward-thinking leader, researcher and educator in the field of environmental protection”
Brickwedde praised Dr Rainer Griesshammer “as a versatile, forward-thinking leader, researcher and educator in the field of environmental protection”. Brickwedde said Griesshammer personified the successful work of the Institute for Applied Ecology which, as its “guiding spirit”, he had turned into one of the leading institutions for environmental research and advice in the country. Brickwedde described how Griesshammer, a trained chemist, had early on championed new policies for the chemicals industry and supported changes in the way society deals with chemical substances. Brickwedde said Griesshammer was also involved in environmental and climate protection with regard to consumer products, noting that his name was closely linked with the introduction of eco-balances. Whether household goods, plastics or textiles – Griesshammer had helped develop methods enabling consumers to better assess products according to environmental and economic criteria. Brickwedde also remarked on Griesshammer’s wide-ranging activities above and beyond his work at the Institute for Applied Ecology – for example, in the German Advisory Council on Global Change, in the German consumer safety group Stiftung Warentest and on the board of trustees of Utopia, the internet portal for strategic consumption. In addition, Brickwedde said, Griesshammer gave practical hints on how people could improve their individual carbon footprints in a range of publications.
Gorbachev performs great services for international environmental protection
Turning to the winner of the special prize, Mikhail Gorbachev, Brickwedde described his efforts in relation to German reunification and the end of the Cold War as “legendary”. Brickwedde said Gorbachev had paved the way for a more peaceful world. At the same time, Brickwedde said, he had also always supported the cause of environmental conservation: if Gorbachev had not existed, Soviet troops would not have pulled out of Germany, opening up huge natural areas formerly used as military zones. This meant there would not be the unique natural areas today whose conservation is the responsibility of the DBU subsidiary DBU Naturerbe GmbH. According to Brickwedde, of the thirty-three areas taken over by the DBU subsidiary in Germany with their some 45,000 hectares, twenty-three, with over 40,000 hectares, are in former East Germany. He said Gorbachev had performed great services for international environmental protection, whether as patron of the “Green Belt” initiative, as founding president of the environmental organisation Green Cross International or through the sustainability projects run by his foundation. Brickwedde praised him for the way he has always supported a global ethics of responsibility and the oneness of nature and humans since leaving politics.
The German Environmental Award is the most lucrative environmental prize in Europe
The special prize of the German Environmental Award is not awarded regularly. In the 18 years since the German Environmental Award was first awarded in 1993, it has been presented twice: in 2004 to Hannelore “Loki” Schmidt and in 2005 to Heinz Sielmann. With a value of 500,000 euros, the German Environmental Award is the most lucrative environmental prize in Europe.
