This year’s recipients of the German Federal Environmental Foundation’s annual German Environmental Prize are Prof. em. Dr. Peter Hennicke, economist and energy efficiency expert (Wuppertal) and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gunther Krieg (Karlsruhe), scientist and founder of UNISENSOR sensor systems. The DBU Award of Honor, which has previously been awarded only three times, will be presented to Hubert Weinzierl (Wiesenfelden) for his life’s work in nature conservation.
The recipients will receive the prize -- with its 500,000 Euro cash award, the most lucrative in Europe -- on October 26th in Kassel in a personal presentation by German President Joachim Gauck. “Both Hennicke and Krieg have shown extraordinary commitment in their decades of work for efficient energy use and the conservation of valuable resources, although they have followed very different paths towards the common goals of energy-, resource- and material efficiency: Hennicke as a scientist and acknowledged expert on sustainable energy supplies, Krieg as a successful developer and entrepreneur of unique measurement- and analysis systems demonstrating feasible perspectives for future environmental sustainability”, said DBU General Secretary Dr. Heinrich Bottermann in an appreciative tribute.
Regarding Hubert Weinzierl, Honorary Prize Recipient and President of the German League for Nature, Animal Protection and Environment (Deutscher Naturschutzring, DNR), Bottermann said: “Weinzierl is a visionary who is ahead of his time. He is one of the very few contemporary players in the field who have taken organized nature conservation out of its niche and moved it to the center of our social conversation. He is considered by many to be the most visible conservationist in Germany, a figure who unifies and integrates classical nature conservation and modern environmental politics.”
