At the end of October the Environmental Prize of the German Federal Environmental Foundation
(Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, DBU) was awarded for the 21st time. In Osnabrück, the founder and Managing Director of the Hock Company of Nördlingen, Carmen Hock-Heyl, and the Chairperson of the Board of Netzkauf Elektrizitätswerke Schönau (EWS) eG, Ursula Sladek, accepted the most highly-endowed environmental prize in Europe from the hands of German President Joachim Gauck.
As DBU General Secretary Dr. Heinrich Bottermann emphasized, with this prize the DBU honors the recipients for their ecological commitment, and for having the entrepreneurial courage to take on challenges and succeed, even against great odds.
Carmen Hock-Heyl established insulation mats made from the renewable raw material hemp in the marketplace, and in spite of substantial resistance, successfully reshaped and reorganized the entire process, from the sowing of the hemp seed to the production of the insulation mats.
Prizewinner Ursula Sladek championed the cause of a safe energy supply which is sustainable and viable for the future, following the nuclear reactor accident at Chernobyl in 1986. From its origins as a citizens’ initiative, the green electricity provider EWS was founded in 1994. Together with her allies and EWS, Sladek overcame the obstacles placed in her way by the conventional electricity providers and took over the Schönauer Electrical Network in 1997, replacing electricity from nuclear energy with power from renewable energies.
Before approximately 1,600 guests at the ceremony in the Osnabrück Hall – among them, German Federal Environmental Minister Peter Altmaier and Lower Saxony’s Minister-President Stephan Weil – Bundespräsident Joachim Gauck asserted in his address that environmental protection no longer conjures up thoughts of “punishing ideologies”. Through the influence of strong and impressive personalities, it is perceived as a pleasure. In his address the President thanked former DBU General Secretary Dr.-Ing. E. h. Fritz Brickwedde, who retired on October 1st, for his commitment in the past 22 years. He stated that Brickwedde has had much to do with the fact that the phrase “German Environmental Prize” resonates today all over Germany, and stands for inventive talent combined with civil courage. DBU General Secretary Bottermann thanked Gauck for his statements.
The entertaining award event, with musical interludes from the “greenbeats” and “the Art Act & tAp dAncer” was moderated by Katrin Bauerfeind; videos and photos can be found at: www.dbu.de/343.html
