Special Track:
Mobility & logistics
Patron:
Steffi Lemke
Environment Minister
The world’s first and largest platform for Cradle to Cradle and Circular Economy since 2014 is back! For the ninth time, we are inviting around 1,000 participants to exchange ideas and network at the International Cradle to Cradle Congress in March 2025: panel discussions with high-ranking speakers from business, politics and science, best practices from established companies and start-ups, inspiring keynotes on the transformation of our society and numerous opportunities for networking.
We cordially invite you to the Research Symposium as part of the 9th International Cradle to Cradle Congress at the TU Berlin! For the second time in a row, we will be discussing current research on C2C before the official congress program.
The donation-financed and non-profit Cradle to Cradle NGO brings C2C is spreading through educational formats, networking business, science, education, politics and civil society and implementing pioneering transformation projects that show how much C2C is already possible today. Around 1,000 volunteers in German-speaking countries are taking the approach out into the world.
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Two days full of exciting discussions about the state of the circular economy, inspiring best practices from C2C companies and those on their way there, scientific discourse and plenty of opportunities for exchange and networking: that was the 8th International Cradle to Cradle Congress at TU Berlin. In this blog we summarize the panels of the main stage on Friday.
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Mr. Junhua Li was appointed the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs in September 2022. He advises the Secretary-General on issues related to the three pillars of sustainable development – social, economic, and environmental. Mr. Li heads the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), which delivers programmes on socioeconomic trends and policies, population dynamics, and environmental management in close partnership with governments, UN agencies and civil society organizations.
Junhua Li wurde im September 2022 zum Untergeneralsekretär der Vereinten Nationen für Wirtschaft und Soziales ernannt. Er berät den Generalsekretär in Fragen, die mit den drei Säulen der nachhaltigen Entwicklung – Soziales, Wirtschaft und Umwelt – zusammenhängen. Li leitet die Hauptabteilung Wirtschaftliche und Soziale Angelegenheiten der Vereinten Nationen (UN DESA), die in enger Zusammenarbeit mit Regierungen, UN-Organisationen und Organisationen der Zivilgesellschaft Programme zu sozioökonomischen Trends und Maßnahmen, Bevölkerungsdynamik und Umweltmanagement durchführt.
Nina Eichinger is an actress and TV presenter who discovered her love of nature at an early age. She studied environmental sciences and communication sciences and, among other things, completed a semester abroad in Australia focusing on rainforest ecology. Eichinger is involved in numerous organisations and juries for a better world and is a member of the advisory board of C2C NGO.
Florian Michaelis is specialized in the topics of circular economy and transformative processes. He founded graadwies in 2017. Here, projects with a social, ecological or cultural background are realized. By linking the fields of society, technology and the environment, the company develops its own logics and applies them in projects. Graadwies provides services in the areas of development, general planning, consulting and research.
In 2021, he founded the company Urban Beta with other partners. As head of system development, he played a key role in developing the BetaPort circular building system. Florian’s vision is to generate regenerative impulses against the backdrop of finite resources using new logics.
Florian Michaelis ist spezialisiert auf die Themen Kreislaufwirtschaft und Transformationsprozesse. Er gründete 2017 graadwies. Hier werden Projekte mit sozialem, ökologischem oder kulturellem Hintergrund realisiert. Durch die Verknüpfung der Bereiche Gesellschaft, Technik und Umwelt entwickelt das Unternehmen eigene Logiken und setzt diese in Projekten um. Graadwies erbringt Dienstleistungen in den Bereichen Entwicklung, Generalplanung, Beratung und Forschung.
Im Jahr 2021 gründete er mit anderen Partnern das Unternehmen Urban Beta. Als Leiter der Systementwicklung war er maßgeblich an der Entwicklung des BetaPort Rundbausystems beteiligt. Florians Vision ist es, vor dem Hintergrund endlicher Ressourcen mit neuen Logiken regenerative Impulse zu setzen.
Martin Krengel, Chairman of the Management Board of the WEPA Group, born in 1957, joined the family business WEPA after completing his studies in law in 1985. In 1990, he became Managing Director, and in 2001 he took over the position as Chairman of the Management Board. In addition, he is Chairman of PAPIER NRW, the association of the paper-manufacturing industry in North Rhine-Westphalia e. V. For the entrepreneurial family, he is Chairman of the Advisory Board of the family holding as well as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the company-affiliated WEPA Foundation.
Martin Krengel, Vorstandsvorsitzender der WEPA Gruppe, Jahrgang 1957, trat nach dem Abschluss des Jura-Studiums im Jahr 1985 in das Familienunternehmen WEPA ein. 1990 wurde er Geschäftsführer und im Jahr 2001 übernahm er den Vorsitz der Geschäftsführung. Krengel ist zudem Vorsitzender von PAPIER NRW, dem Verband der papiererzeugenden Industrie in Nordrhein-Westfalen e. V. Für die Unternehmerfamilie ist er Beiratsvorsitzender der Familienholding sowie Kuratoriumsvorsitzender der unternehmensverbundenen WEPA Stiftung.
Sebastian Schwanhäußer, born in 1963, has been CEO of the Schwan-STABILO Group since 2019 and is the fifth generation to take responsibility for the family business founded in 1855. From 1985 to 1992, he studied business administration at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. After graduating, he initially worked in corporate planning at Viag AG. In 1995, he moved to Hunt Manufacturing in Philadelphia, USA, as a product manager. Two years later, he returned to Germany and joined the Schwan-STABILO Group.
As a passionate family entrepreneur, sustainability and Cradle to Cradle are Sebastian Schels’ absolute focal points. With his company, he aims to initiate a successful construction revolution as the self-proclaimed ‘Chief Environmental Officer.’ Embracing a fundamentally honest approach and a commitment to implementation, RATISBONA Handelsimmobilien creates tangible references for transformation. The stated goal is to create attractive markets by combining the C2C design concept with architectural culture, thereby establishing sustainability and quality as the new standard. Ultimately, this endeavor leads to environmentally positive, circular, and architecturally valuable buildings.
Minister of State Sarah Ryglewski is responsible for cooperation between the federal and state governments at the Federal Chancellery of Germany. She is also entrusted by the Federal Cabinet with responsibility for sustainable development and heads the State Secretaries’ Committee for Sustainable Development. She was previously Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Finance (2019-2021). She has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2015. From 2011 to 2015, she was a member of the Bremen Parliament. Sarah Ryglewski has been involved in the SPD since 2001. First as state chair of the Young Socialists, then as deputy state chair of the SPD, and since 2017 as an assessor in the SPD party executive. She has a degree in political science and worked as a district manager in Bremen after graduating from university.
Geraldine Rauch has been President of TU Berlin since April 1, 2022 and Spokesperson of the Berlin University Alliance for two years since November 1, 2022. The mathematician taught and researched at Heidelberg University after graduating and took up a professorship in Medical Biometry at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in 2017. In the same year, she became Director of the Institute of Biometry and Clinical Epidemiology at Charité Berlin and Vice Dean for Studies and Teaching from 2020 to 2022. Also in 2022, she was appointed to the Federal Government’s Council for the Future by Chancellor Olaf Scholz. She is also a review board member of the German Research Foundation’s Department of Medicine and a full member of the German Medical Association’s Drug Commission.
Dr Janez Potočnik (1958) is an economist graduated from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He served as Director of the Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development in Ljubljana. He was appointed Head of ther Negotiating Team for the Accession of Slovenia to the EU and served as Minister responsible for European Affairs. In 2004 he joined the European Commission as Commissioner responsible for Science and Research. In 2010 he became Commissioner for the Environment. After the mandate he was appointed as a Co-Chair of the United Nations International Resource Panel. He is also Partner at SYSTEMIQ.
Dr. Alexander von Niessen, CEO of Chocal Sustainable Packaging has 24 years of experience as a CEO and entrepreneur. He is deeply committed to sustainability and innovation. With a passion for reshaping industries, his journey has been defined by a relentless pursuit of creating positive impact in the packaging and automotive industry. He studied mechanical engineering at Technical University Hanover and completed his Ph.D. in the field of quality management.
Prof. Dr. Dirk Messner is President of the German Environment Agency and a sustainability expert. He previously served as Director of the Institute for Environment and Human Security of United Nations University (UNU-EHS) and of the German Development Institute in Bonn, Germany, and was co-chair of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU).
Dagmar Fritz-Kramer has a degree in interior design and joined her parents’ company Bau-Fritz GmbH & Co. KG in Erkheim after graduating in 1998 as an interior designer and partner. From 1999 to 2002, she studied industrial engineering at Biberach University of Applied Sciences while working. From 2002 to 2004, she was Head of Planning at Bau-Fritz. In 2004, she was appointed managing partner. In 2008, Fritz-Kramer was named “Entrepreneur of the Year 2008” by Veuve Clicquot and was also honored with the “Career of the Year 2008” award by Handelsblatt. In 2015, she received the Bavarian Order of Merit for her outstanding commitment to environmental and social issues. In 2023, Fritz-Kramer received the German Environmental Award.
Born in 1959, studied business administration, gained his doctorate and habilitation in Munich. Professorships at the universities of Heidelberg (visiting professorship), Jena and Bamberg. Head of the Department of Strategic Leadership and Global Management at TU Berlin since winter semester 2008/09. 2011-2013 Dean of his faculty. Head of the “Sustainable Management” degree programme. 2011-12 Member, 2013-14 Chairman of the Board of the Association of University Professors of Business Administration e.V. Research interests: Sustainability management, mergers & acquisitions, diversification, ecosystems, grand societal challenges.
Tim Janßen is executive director and co-founder of Cradle to Cradle NGO. He majored in Business, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Leadership at Leuphana University Lüneburg and Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg (DHBW). In 2012, he co-founded Cradle to Cradle NGO (C2C NGO) with Nora Sophie Griefahn. C2C NGO connects the fields of business, education, politics, and civil society by creating networking platforms and educational formats. In 2019, the NGO established the C2C LAB in Berlin: the world’s first renovation in an existing building based on Cradle to Cradle criteria. Serving as an educational center, NGO head office, and real-world laboratory, it is here where the C2C school of thought and design concept become reality. As co-executive director, Tim develops strategies to maximize the organization’s impact on society and actively shapes the growth of this young, ever-growing movement. He is a sought-after expert for Cradle to Cradle, Circular Economy and Social Entrepreneurship. He regularly holds keynotes and partakes as panelist at national and international conferences. Furthermore, Tim is a lecturer at DHBW, Leuphana University Lüneburg and TU Berlin.
Reiner Hoffmann is Chairman of the German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE) and Deputy Chairman of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. He studied economics at the University of Wuppertal. From 1983 to 1994, he worked at the Hans Böckler Foundation in Düsseldorf. From October 1994 to May 2003, he was Director of the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) in Brussels. In May 2003, he was elected Deputy General Secretary of the ETUC. From May 2018 to May 2022, he was Chairman of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB).
Nora Sophie Griefahn is co-founder and managing director of Cradle to Cradle NGO. For more than ten years, the environmental scientist has been a sought-after expert on C2C, the sustainable use of finite resources, and the need for materially healthy and recyclable products at political and economic podiums and events as well as in the media. With C2C NGO, she is driving forward a rethink in science, politics, education and society that aims for more than just climate neutrality. Griefahn also holds teaching positions at various German universities.
Michael Braungart teaches at Leuphana University in Lüneburg. He is also the founder of EPEA – Internationale Umweltforschung GmbH in Hamburg, the cradle of Cradle to Cradle. He is also co-founder and scientific director of McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) in Charlottesville, Virginia (USA) and founder and scientific director of the Hamburg Environment Institute (HUI). Michael Braungart is one of the two founders of the Cradle to Cradle design concept, which is the basis for the Green Deal and the EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan. Together with organizations and companies from various sectors, he designs eco-effective products, business models, and intelligent material pooling. Together with William McDonough, he was named Hero of the Environment by Time Magazine in 2007.
Giulio Bonazzi has dedicated his career to evolving Aquafil S.p.A. into a leading player in the global carpet and textile materials industry. Aquafil was founded by Bonazzi’s parents 50 years ago in Arco, Italy. An innovator and disruptor, Bonazzi is transforming his family’s manufacturing business into a sustainable global enterprise. Aquafil developed a recycled nylon material by turning trash from landfill and oceans into high-quality fibers: ECONYL®️. Today, Aquafil is a sustainability leader, a stalwart example of the circular economy and an innovator within the synthetic textile industry. Giulio Bonazzi is a sought-after speaker and has shared insights on creating a circular economy at leading conferences.
Christiane Benner has been First Chairwoman of Europe’s largest industrial union, IG Metall, since October 2023. The trained foreign language correspondent and sociologist is responsible for the areas of general issues/social policy, target groups, organizational policy, company and co-determination policy, as well as internal auditing and the legal department of IG Metall.
Prof. Dr. Dirk Messner is President of the Federal Environment Agency and a sustainability researcher. He was previously Director of the Institute for Environment and Human Security at the United Nations University and the German Development Institute (DIE) in Bonn and Co-Chairman of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU).
Giulio Bonazzi has dedicated his career to developing Aquafil S.p.A., founded 50 years ago by his parents, into a leading company in the global carpet and textile industry.
An innovator, Bonazzi is transforming his family’s manufacturing business into a sustainable global enterprise.
Aquafil developed a circular nylon material by turning landfill and ocean waste into high-quality fibers: ECONYL®️.
Today, Aquafil is a leader in sustainability, an exemplar of the circular economy and an innovator in the synthetic textile industry.
Giulio Bonazzi is a sought-after speaker and gives insights into the implementation of a circular economy at leading conferences.
Minister of State Sarah Ryglewski is responsible for cooperation between the federal and state governments at the Federal Chancellery.
She is also entrusted by the Federal Cabinet with responsibility for sustainable development and heads the State Secretaries’ Committee for Sustainable Development.
She was previously Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Finance (2019-2021).
She has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2015.
She was a member of the Bremen Parliament from 2011 to 2015.
Sarah Ryglewski has been involved in the SPD since 2001.
First as state chair of the Young Socialists, then as deputy state chair of the SPD, and since 2017 as an assessor on the SPD party executive.
She has a degree in political science and worked as a district manager in Bremen after graduating from university.
Dr Janez Potočnik (1958) is an economist graduated from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He served as Director of the Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development in Ljubljana. He was appointed Head of ther Negotiating Team for the Accession of Slovenia to the EU and served as Minister responsible for European Affairs. In 2004 he joined the European Commission as Commissioner responsible for Science and Research. In 2010 he became Commissioner for the Environment. After the mandate he was appointed as a Co-Chair of the United Nations International Resource Panel. He is also Partner at SYSTEMIQ.
Since October 2023 Christiane Benner has been First Chairwoman of IG Metall. The foreign language correspondent and sociologist is responsible for the areas of fundamental issues/social policy, target groups, organisational policy, works and co-determination policy as well as internal auditing and the legal department of IG Metall.
Dagmar Fritz-Kramer has a degree in interior design and joined her parents’ company Bau-Fritz GmbH & Co. KG in Erkheim after graduating in 1998 as an interior designer and partner. From 1999 to 2002, she studied industrial engineering at Biberach University of Applied Sciences while working. From 2002 to 2004, she was Head of Planning at Bau-Fritz. In 2004, she was appointed managing partner. In 2008, Fritz-Kramer was named “Entrepreneur of the Year 2008” by Veuve Clicquot and was also honored with the “Career of the Year 2008” award by Handelsblatt. In 2015, she received the Bavarian Order of Merit for her outstanding commitment to environmental and social issues. In 2023, Fritz-Kramer received the German Environmental Award.
Dr. Alexander von Niessen, CEO of Chocal Sustainable Packaging has 24 years of experience as a CEO and entrepreneur. He is deeply committed to sustainability and innovation. With a passion for reshaping industries, his journey has been defined by a relentless pursuit of creating positive impact in the packaging and automotive industry. He studied mechanical engineering at Technical University Hanover and completed his Ph.D. in the field of quality management.
Sebastian Schwanhäußer, born in 1963, has been CEO of the Schwan-STABILO Group since 2019 and is the fifth generation to take responsibility for the family business founded in 1855. From 1985 to 1992, he studied business administration at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. After graduating, he initially worked in corporate planning at Viag AG. In 1995, he moved to Hunt Manufacturing in Philadelphia, USA, as a product manager. Two years later, he returned to Germany and joined the Schwan-STABILO Group.
Reiner Hoffmann is Chairman of the German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE) and Deputy Chairman of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. He studied economics at the University of Wuppertal. From 1983 to 1994, he worked at the Hans Böckler Foundation in Düsseldorf. From October 1994 to May 2003, he was Director of the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) in Brussels. In May 2003, he was elected Deputy General Secretary of the ETUC. From May 2018 to May 2022, he was Chairman of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB).
As a passionate family entrepreneur, sustainability and Cradle to Cradle are Sebastian Schels’ absolute focal points. With his company, he aims to initiate a successful construction revolution as the self-proclaimed ‘Chief Environmental Officer.’ Embracing a fundamentally honest approach and a commitment to implementation, RATISBONA Handelsimmobilien creates tangible references for transformation. The stated goal is to create attractive markets by combining the C2C design concept with architectural culture, thereby establishing sustainability and quality as the new standard. Ultimately, this endeavor leads to environmentally positive, circular, and architecturally valuable buildings.
Geraldine Rauch has been President of TU Berlin since April 1, 2022 and Spokesperson of the Berlin University Alliance for two years since November 1, 2022. The mathematician taught and researched at Heidelberg University after graduating and took up a professorship in Medical Biometry at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in 2017. In the same year, she became Director of the Institute of Biometry and Clinical Epidemiology at Charité Berlin and Vice Dean for Studies and Teaching from 2020 to 2022. Also in 2022, she was appointed to the Federal Government’s Council for the Future by Chancellor Olaf Scholz. She is also a review board member of the German Research Foundation’s Department of Medicine and a full member of the German Medical Association’s Drug Commission.
08.09.2023
Cradle to Cradle ist in der Bundespolitik angekommen – 8. C2C Congress startet an der TU Berlin
08.09.2023
C2C Congress bringt Wissenschaft, Wirtschaft und Politik an der TU Berlin zusammen
Christian Schröder studied history and mathematics at TU Berlin. He was a member of the University’s Central Teaching Committee from 2003 to 2022, serving as head of the Committee from 2008 to 2022. During this time, he actively supported the further development of the University’s degree programs. A key focus of his work was establishing the Faculty of Engineering at the Turkish-German University in Istanbul.
From 2012 to 2022, Schröder was responsible for coordinating the MINTgrün pre-study orientation program, the largest program of its type in Germany.
Christian Schröder has been vice president for education, teacher training, and continuing education since 1 April 2022.
He is the spokesperson of the dghd network Orientation Study Programs in Germany, a member of the Round Table on Study Dropout, a reviewer for numerous applications for teaching innovations and teaching awards and has published articles on various aspects of the further development of studying and teaching.
Carolina Mojto is an architect, founder and managing director of FREIRAUM in the Box. She studied at the ETH in Zurich and in Nanjing and worked for Herzog & de Meuron, among others. The topics of living and building in harmony with nature and appreciation of resources have been close to her heart since childhood. She started her own business in Berlin as an architect and sustainable project developer with a focus on the revitalization of existing buildings and biodiverse outdoor spaces. In the listed horse stable FREIRAUM in der Box she has created a free space in which she works with C2C NGO and other diverse actors for sustainable change.
Ana-Cristina Grohnert is founder and Managing Partner of the Berlin Advisors Group. She advises on and designs companies business transformation, ESG management and HR strategies from the business and HR manager perspective. Furthermore, Ana-Cristina is Chairwomen of the Board of Directors of the Charta der Vielfalt (Charter of Diversity), Germany’s biggest business diversity network. Before working for BAG, Ana-Cristina was CHRO of Allianz and managing and restructuring partner of EY where she previously realigned the human resources strategy and advised clients in financial services in their restructuring and reorganization. She joined EY after 15 years of bank and industry experience in financial and risk management at DGHYP, ABB and Preussag. She is a member of various boards and sustainability advisory boards and wrote a book “The Hidden capital” with deep insights on transformational processes and management culture. Manager Magazin and the Boston Consulting Group named Ana-Cristina Grohnert one of the most influential women in German business.
Tobias Bandel has been working in the field of sustainable agriculture for around 20 years and has been Head of Biome at The Landbanking Group, a platform for valuing and trading critical ecosystem services, since August 2022. After completing his bachelor’s degree at the University of Hohenheim, Bandel worked for the Sekem Group, among others, and was Managing Partner and owner of Soil & More Impacts.
Stefan Gelbhaar, born in 1976, has been a member of the Bundestag since 2017 and was directly elected for the Pankow 76 constituency in 2021. He is transport policy spokesman for the Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary group and a member of the extended parliamentary group executive committee. He is a member of the transport committees and also a deputy member of the budget committee and the digital committee. Gelbhaar has been a member of the Deutsche Bahn Supervisory Board since 2022.
Born in 1959. Studied business administration, doctorate and habilitation in Munich. Professorships at the Universities of Heidelberg (visiting professorship), Jena and Bamberg. Since winter semester 2008/09 Head of the Department of Strategic Leadership and Global Management at the TU Berlin. 2011-2013 Dean of his faculty. Head of the course of studies “Sustainable Management”. 2011-12 Member, 2013-14 Chairman of the Board of the Association of University Teachers of Business Administration. Research interests: Sustainability Management, Mergers & Acquisitions, Diversification, Ecosystems, Grand Societal Challenges.
Andreas Wittmann is co-founder and managing director of r3leaf, a tool platform for regenerative planning and building. He studied business psychology and sustainability sciences at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg and conducted research on plant carbon in construction and agriculture at the Ithaka Institute. He volunteered to support the establishment of the Building Alliance of C2C NGO as well as Architects for Future and contributed to the BAMB Buildings as Material Banks & PCDS Product Circularity Datasheets project.
Max Ostermayer is Policy Officer for climate, energy, and environmental policy at the Division “Analysis, Planning, and Consulting” of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Berlin. During his time with FES, he also worked on questions of social inequality, pension policy, and digitalization. While with the international department of FES from 2017 to 2018, he served at the FES Athens Office in Greece. He holds a Masters’s degree in Philosophy and Economics and a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Economics.
Tore Waldhausen founded r3leaf in November 2019 with the goal of enabling regenerative building renovations through artificial intelligence. The civil engineer has been working in the field of ecological building and building according to C2C since completing his master’s degree at HTWK Leipzig, including at Sudop Germany, at Architekturbüro Wittmann, and on a freelance basis. He is voluntarily involved in the building alliance of C2C NGO, presides over the Association for Ecological Building Leipzig and founded the Bauzirkel as well as the Architects for Future Regional Group Leipzig.
As Executive Director of Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, Elwyn Grainger-Jones leads the Institute’s team to accelerate adoption and maximize the impact of the organization and the Cradle to Cradle Certified®️ Products Program globally, providing overarching leadership, strategy, and direction. Prior to the Institute, Elwyn spent several years at CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) and more than 20 years working in a range of government institutions and development banks, where he held various leadership and change management positions, including Director of Policy, Partnerships and Operations at the Global Environment Facility in the World Bank and Director of the Environment and Climate Department in the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development.
Dr. Monika Griefahn was a founding member of Greenpeace Germany and the first female board member of Greenpeace International until 1990. From 1990, she was Minister for the Environment in the state of Lower Saxony for eight years and a member of the German Bundestag from 1998 to 2009. In 2012, she founded the Institute Media, Environment, Culture (IMUK) – a company with consulting services and educational activities in the field of sustainability. Griefahn has been managing director of the institute since then. As Chief Sustainability Officer, she accompanied, among other things, the realignment of the cruise company AIDA toward the use of LNG as an alternative fuel. Her voluntary activities include her long-standing involvement in the Right Livelihood Award Foundation (“Alternative Nobel Prize”) as well as serving as Chair of the Advisory Board of Cradle to Cradle NGO.
Wilhelm Mauß is Managing Director of Lorenz GmbH & Co. KG, a leading metering technology manufacturer and pioneer of the Circular Economy. The smart water meters from the Swabian family-owned company enable the operation and monitoring of public supply networks and are used to control industrial plants. The mechanical and industrial engineer originally served for twelve years in the German armed forces. In 1994, he became sales manager of a world-leading German testing machine manufacturer, and in 2000 was appointed Managing Director Asia in Singapore. Back in Germany, in 2003 he took over the management of Lorenz GmbH & Co. KG. The medium-sized company has since grown more than fivefold on the basis of comprehensive digitization measures and a holistic focus on the circular economy. Lorenz has repeatedly received awards for R&D, sustainability and practiced corporate responsibility, including the Digital Leader Award and the German Innovation Award for Climate and Environment from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment and the BDI.
Kerstin Hochmüller is CEO and shareholder of the Marantec Group. Since 2013, she has been transforming the company into a network organisation. She is a pioneer and initiator of cooperative business models in the sense of the sharing economy. She developed the Open Champions methodology for the transformation of the Marantec Group. With the Best of Hidden Champions, Open Innovation, Cooperation and Leadership, she wants to rebuild the future of medium-sized businesses. With her team, she is working to develop new business models to make drives circular.
Ruth Prinzmeier is Sustainability Manager DACH at Interface, a sustainability pioneer for modular flooring that shapes the market with sustainable solutions. This includes CO2-negative and climate-neutral flooring as well as transparency initiatives and the consistent sustainable development of the company with a focus on measurable, positive effects. In her various professional positions, she has worked as a communications manager, product manager and project manager in the food, retail and mechanical engineering markets. She transferred strategic concepts into day-to-day business and drove change processes. As a business graduate, sustainability manager and DNK training partner, she has been committed to sustainable corporate development for many years. Since 2022, she has been supporting clients, architects and planners in their sustainable building projects in her role at Interface.
Laura Scherer is a circular economy enthusiast, entrepreneur and certified process manager.
She holds a bachelor degree in International Business Management as well as a masters degree in Operations Management. Her professional career kicked off as waste management and recycling consultant for GlobalFlow GmbH, GreenCycle GmbH and Nidisi gGmbH. In these various roles, she developed her perspective on and competencies with respect to Circular Economy in Germany, the EU and Nepal. Driven by a desire for broader impact, Laura founded Circu:Culture in 2022, an organization dedicated to promoting education and knowledge transfer in the circular economy field and motivating people to work in it. Through Circu:Culture, Laura conducts lectures, workshops, and teambuildings, to educate on circular economy and has also developed an online learning platform. In her podcast (the “Circu:Cast”) she gives insights on professions of the circular economy.
Florian Lüdeke-Freund is Professor for Corporate Sustainability at ESCP Business School Berlin and co-founder of ESCP’s Sustainability Transformation & Applied Research Centre. He studies sustainable business models for more than a decade and published several highly-cited articles, for example, in Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Industrial Ecology, and Organization & Environment. As Associate Editor of the Journal of Business Models and Academic Advisor of the International Conference on New Business Models he is passionate about developing a vibrant community of sustainable business model experts. His latest book is “Sustainable Business Model Design – 45 Patterns” (2022).
Holger Sasse studied civil engineering at the engineering school in Magdeburg. After graduating, he worked as a plant manager at the Giersleben concrete plant. In 1990, he founded the company Sasse & Junghanns GmbH Hochbau and became an independent contractor. After 15 years in structural engineering, he was looking for new challenges. With the development and production of polymer-bonded wood-based materials, Holger Sasse founded NOVO-TECH GmbH & Co. KG in Aschersleben, under whose brand megawood®️ products made of the innovative material GCC (German Compact Composite) have been manufactured since 2007. Meanwhile, the group of companies consists of 6 companies with about 200 employees. Holger Sasse is married, has 3 children and 5 grandchildren.
Anna Cavazzini is from Germany and has been a Member of the European Parliament for The Greens/EFA since 2019. She fights for a sustainable EU internal market and fair globalization – in short, for fair and sustainable economic structures inside and outside the EU. Since November 2020, she has been Chair of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection.She is also a substitute member of the Committee on International Trade and vice chair of the Brazil delegation. Her constituencies are Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. Before becoming an MEP, she herself worked in the European Parliament, for the Federal Foreign Office and the UNO and was an advisor to various NGOs.
Lisa-Sophie Kinne joined the team at Cradle to Cradle NGO in 2022. During her academic journey in Cultural Studies and Transnational Studies, she found her way into educational work and gained experience in education for sustainable development. Her interest in the dynamics of social change and her passion for communicating topics relevant to the future inform her lectures, workshops and projects as an educator.
As a teacher, Anna Britz has many years of didactic and methodical experience in Germany and abroad, from elementary school to university. Since 2021 she’s the head of the department of education at C2C NGO. She likes to work creatively with the development of target group-specific and action-oriented educational materials in order to convey the concept of C2C to people as a solution.
Chloé Demay joined Cradle to Cradle NGO in July 2022 as a trainee in the Municipal Development Unit. She connects actors at the municipal level who want to work for an economic, social and ecological transformation. Chloé studied German-French social and political sciences with a focus on urban policy in Stuttgart and Bordeaux. After her Master’s degree, she worked as an urban renewal officer in the municipality of Pau in France.
Lena Germscheid joined Cradle to Cradle NGO in March 2023 as a consultant in the Municipal Development Unit. She connects actors at the municipal level who want to implement an economic, social and ecological transformation in their region. Lena holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Sciences and has worked as a municipal manager for climate adaptation before joining C2C NGO.
Victor Büchner is a master student in Management & Entrepreneurship at Leuphana University and an independent consultant. He is committed to Cradle to Cradle entrepreneurship and has already worked on several C2C product developments. During his bachelor studies, he founded the non-profit C2C consultancy Holy Shit together with Lea Lensky and Prof. Dr. Michael Braungart and co-developed, among others, the biodegradable Corona mask VivaMask.
Manja Schreiner has been Senator for Mobility, Transport, Climate Protection and the Environment in Berlin since April 2023. A lawyer, she was a member of the Berlin-Pankow district council from 2016 to 2018 and a member of the economic committee, and has been a member of the Berlin CDU state executive committee since 2017 and its chairwoman since 2019. In her professional career, she has worked, among other things, as legal counsel for AIDA Cruises, was a legal officer at the Federation of German Industries, headed the legal department of the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts and, until her appointment as Senator, was chief executive of the Fachgemeinschaft Bau Berlin und Brandenburg e.V. (Berlin and Brandenburg Construction Association).
Photo Copyright:
SenMVKU / Ralf Rühmeier (über: https://www.berlin.de/sen/uvk/ueber-uns/leitung/senatorin-manja-schreiner/)
Charles is global lead packaging, paper & printing at Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute (PII). He is driving sustainability by connecting and stimulating sustainable efforts in the value streams of packaging & printing. With his lifetime experience in packaging, he understands the industry and the difficulties which we collectively must overcome towards sustainable solutions. He works closely with companies and stakeholders to guide their efforts to apply circularity and sustainability principles and to scale uptake of Cradle to Cradle certification across packaging applications. Prior to joining the PII Charles worked at multinationals in the value chain of flexible packaging, from basic polymers till packaging concepts. Together with clients and suppliers he implemented changes towards more sustainable packaging solutions, such as reducing material use by changing packaging concepts or improving recyclability by shifting to mono-materials or compostable solutions.
Johannes Kohle has been Head of the Building & Housing Department in the southern German municipality of Straubenhardt near Pforzheim since 2001. The municipality was the first C2C model region in Germany and has so far implemented, among other things, the construction of a fire station according to Cradle to Cradle. Kohle is a civil engineer and received his degree in Konstanz.
Since 2020, Sophie Treu and her team have been pursuing the goal of establishing and maintaining a good connection to those economic actors who work with C2C NGO for a transformation to Cradle to Cradle through partnerships and numerous threads of conversation. This includes the partner networks of Impact Partners, Congress Partners, and cooperations within the framework of major projects of the NGO. In addition to regular networking events, partner dialogues, and support for the annual International C2C Congress, she also organized a Summit on C2C Construction & Architecture. Sophie holds a degree in Political Science and completed her masters degree in Social & Cultural Psychology in London.
Growing up in Saxony-Anhalt, I went to Stuttgart in 2018 to study. There, I successfully completed my bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering for construction and real estate last year. After a short stay in Vienna, I was drawn back more towards home. For almost a year now, I have been working as a project manager for a construction project developer in Erfurt. In March 2023 I met the C2C NGO, where I am now an active member and since October 2023 also spokesperson of the regional group Thuringia. In October of this year, I will start my master’s degree in sustainable and resource-conserving construction at the University of Wuppertal.
Christian Schlimok is founder and managing director of Novamondo, a creative consultancy based in Berlin, which has been supporting organisations on their way to more sustainability for over 20 years with effective strategies, inspiring design and value-oriented communication. He lectures and teaches at international universities and colleges – currently at the HWR Berlin – on topics such as circular design, marketing and sustainability communication.
Nono is project manager at EPEA Benelux. She is an industrial designer and has great interest in materials and material flows, in product design, but also in systemic thinking and analyzing complex processes. She obtained a master’s degree in the field of sustainable cities and focused on circular material flows, like building materials, in metropolitan areas. Cradle to Cradle is a comprehensive design framework that can inform design processes at every level, from molecule to metropolis. At her work at EPEA Nono applies this framework on a broad range of projects working towards products, materials, buildings, cities and systems with positive impacts!
Jörg Witthöft has headed the Bielefeld location of the automotive supplier ZF Group since 2008. He has worked for the company in various roles since 1998. Witthöft studied mechanical engineering and industrial engineering and gained professional experience at the Suttner company after his first degree before moving to ZF. He has also been a member of the Environmental Committee of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Bielefeld since 2018, as well as a member of the Board of ZAA Unternehmerverband Bielefeld. His Motto:
Future-oriented production does not generate waste, but infinite cycles of recyclable materials.
Dr. Cordelia Koch has been mayor of the Berlin district of Pankow since April 2023. Since 2021, she had been a city councilor there for the areas of social affairs and health. In 2016, she became parliamentary group leader of Bündis 90/Die Grünen and represented her party in the committees for urban development and green spaces as well as equality, gender mainstreaming, citizen participation. She has been involved with Bündnis 90/Die Grünen in Pankow since 2010. As district chairwoman, she headed their largest eastern German association for six years. As an administrative lawyer, she worked for 10 years in the administration of the Freie Universität Berlin. She taught law enforcement by police bodies for several years at the Berlin School of Economics and Law. In her studies and her doctorate she dealt with the effect of (constitutional) legal regulations on society. Before moving to Berlin in 2005, Cordelia Koch lived in Beirut, Frankfurt/Main and Paris, among other places.
With her interdisciplinary background in audiovisual media and sociology, Birgit Essling initially worked as a department head for international event management and as a freelance initiator in grant management. In this role, she has been bringing together European consortia in the context of grant applications since 2004. After her work as press officer for the cooperation of the International Cultural Program within the Varus Year 2009, she was seconded to the Landkreistag Nordrhein-Westfalen and took over the management of the EU liaison office in Brussels for seven years. Birgit Essling has headed the office of the Lippe Circular Consortium since 2019. The model project RE-BUILD-OWL was initiated by the Lippe zirkulär office and Birgit Essling is responsible for strategic coordination and press and public relations support.
As a political science teacher and head of the Social Sciences department at Beethoven-Gymnasium Berlin, Philip Elsen has been successfully reshaping the educational landscape for years through innovative learning formats, particularly in the realms of sustainability, democratic education, and digitalization, as well as through extracurricular and interdisciplinary collaborations. He is convinced that his teaching serves not only to promote a well-founded knowledge-based ability for judgment and action, but also to impart creative thinking “out of the box,” courage, optimism for the future, and the capacity for self-directed shaping. For a considerable period, Mr. Elsen has been closely collaborating with Cradle to Cradle NGO. His latest project involves the creation of a circular classroom of the future, effectively implementing the principles of a circular economy
Dr. Jan Schmidt has been Chairman of the Executive Board of the steel company Peiner Träger, an operationally independent subsidiary of Salzgitter AG, since January 2023. After studying at the Technical University of Munich, the Technical University of Braunschweig and in Grenoble, Schmidt began his professional career in 2002 at io-consultants and joined Salzgitter Flachstahl in 2009 as General Manager Automotive Industry. In July 2019, he became Managing Partner of Cornils GmbH prior to his renewed move to Peiner Träger. Since February 2023, Schmidt has also been chairman of the board of bauforumstahl e.V. (BFS), the leading association for construction with steel in Germany.
Born in Heidelberg, Germany, and now residing in Switzerland, Sarah Harbarth is a dynamic leader, Founder, and CEO with a background in industrial design and specialized expertise in alternative plastics. Her skill set encompasses marketing, collaboration, and fundraising, all of which are vital to her role at KUORI, her second entrepreneurial endeavor. With a strong commitment to sustainability, Sarah is deeply aligned with the cradle-to-cradle philosophy.
I discovered the minimalist lifestyle of the Tiny House movement in Oregon 14 years ago and saw it as the perfect complement to my interest in the Cradle to Cradle school of thought. Both motivate me to this day to apply circular thinking to all aspects of my life. Originally, I studied cultural studies and education for sustainable development and worked in the tourism industry for over 15 years. My tourism career took me through much of the world and everywhere I went I realized the importance of engaging people in the regenerative cycle of the biosphere. I believe in the power of self-efficacy in nature and want to encourage people to be active and engaged in creating a regenerative ecosystem. According to the principle: work SMART. with NATURE.
After completing an apprenticeship as a machine mechanic and studies in electronic engineering at the HTL Winterthur, Martin Kyburz worked for Rieter as a research and development project manager in the field of sensor technology. He also built electric vehicles in his garage. After 4 years he ventured into self-employment and founded his own company for electric vehicles. His first Kyburz senior citizen vehicle quickly found favour, was further developed into a transport vehicle and conquered the postal market. The company Kyburz Switzerland AG grew strongly, today employs over 150 people and operates internationally with approximately 22.000 vehicles worldwide. Sustainability, efficiency and driving pleasure are Martin Kyburz’s concerns for all environmentally friendly Kyburz vehicles.
In recent years, Alain Visser has been named one of the top 10 most influential CMOs in the world by Forbes magazine for his honest and open approach to transforming the mobility industry. Before joining Lynk & Co to redefine mobility globally, Alain was Vice President of Marketing, Sales and Customer Service at Volvo, where he was responsible for the international market. He also spent eight years at General Motors, as Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Aftersales at Opel/Vauxhall. Alain was also a member of the Board of Management of Adam Opel AG. Prior to that, he spent 17 years at Ford Motor Company. Originally from Belgium, Alain began his career in the automotive industry in 1986 and holds a Master of Science from the University of Antwerp and an MBA from Duke University in North Carolina. He speaks six languages, including Italian, English, French and German.
Christian Mehnert is the managing director of Kreiswerke Barnim GmbH (KWB). In 2012, he took over the management of Barnimer Dienstleistungsgesellschaft mbH, which is responsible for waste disposal in the Barnim district. Since 2016, he has been managing director of KWB, which was founded as a wholly owned subsidiary of the district in December 2016 as part of the zero-emissions strategy. As a company owned by the district, they pursue the goal of actively shaping the energy supply in the region, for example by investing in plants for renewable energy production and implementing measures for efficient energy production and use together with municipalities.
Dr. Philipp Hummel has been Head of Sustainability at the toy company Schleich since 2020 and is responsible for initiating, implementing and expanding Schleich’s global sustainability strategy and holistic ESG program. After completing his studies in management accounting, Dr. Philipp Hummel obtained his doctorate from Leuphana University of Lüneburg, focusing on sustainability accounting and reporting. Alongside his doctoral studies, Hummel has gained extensive experience in the food industry, with his most recent role being the sustainability manager at MEGGLE, an international dairy product manufacturer.
Dr. Jens Nusser, LL.M. is a partner in the law firm Franßen & Nusser. He focuses on product safety and product environmental law as well as on corporate organization, compliance and ESG.
Tara Nitz works as Global Circular Economy Manager at Covestro, headquartered in Leverkusen, Germany. In her role at Covestro Tara leads strategic projects related to the CE implementation at Covestro and the advocacy and positioning on various regulatory matters in particular recycling and alternative raw material uptake. Tara is a German qualified lawyer with a focus on ESG related legal matters. Before joining Covestro she has worked in the climate and energy policy departments at the Federation of German Industries and at the German Chemical Industry Association as well as at the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).
Jörg Papenkort has been Head of Building Management at the Viersen district since 2019 and is driving forward the integration of sustainable and digital planning, construction and operation of municipal real estate. For example, the district of Viersen was awarded the title “Climate Active Municipality 2022” in the category of resource and energy efficiency for the new construction of the district archive. Previously, Mr. Papenkort worked as Head of Facility Management at Deutsche Glasfaser Holding and at Funke Mediengruppe in real estate and facility management. At Apleona he was responsible for the digitalization of services and at the software provider conject for product management in the FM sector.
Matthias Koller is Head of the Department of “Fundamental Aspects, Sustainability Strategies and Scenarios, Sustainable Resource Use” (ad interim) at the Federal Environment Agency. He also teaches at the TU Berlin on the topic of “Building Sustainability”. Koller is a member of the advisory board of the KI Ideas Workshop for Environmental Protection and a member of the extended steering committee of SDSN Germany. He previously worked as an administration officer in the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the State of Brandenburg and as a researcher in the Eco-Technology Research Group at the Centre for Environmental Sciences at the University of Potsdam. Koller is a chemical engineer and holds a degree from TU Berlin.
Michael Kellner has been Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action since 2021, and since January 2022 Federal Government Commissioner for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. Since October 2022, Kellner has also been the Federal Government’s contact person for the cultural and creative industries. Since 2021, Kellner has been a member of the German Bundestag. He studied political science in Potsdam, Canterbury (UK) and East Lansing (US).
Bela B is an artist and drummer as well as singer with the band Die Ärzte. Since 2018, he has been an honorary advisory board member of Cradle to Cradle NGO and in this role was a driving force behind the project Labor Tempelhof.
Max-Christian Lange is Deputy Head of Sustainability on the Executive Board of Deutsche Bahn AG and is also responsible for Public Affairs Sustainability. In his role, he drives Deutsche Bahn’s Green Transformation and Social Responsibility. Previously, he worked for over 15 years in management consulting with a focus on transformation and change processes, most recently as Managing Partner. Max-Christian Lange studied economics and social sciences in Germany and the USA.
Alexandra von Stosch is managing director and spokesperson of the Artprojekt Group, a multi-sector developer in Berlin and Brandenburg with a focus on innovation and sustainability. In Berlin, four science parks are being built on innovation topics such as, in particular, the food of the future, the Food Campus in Tempelhof. In southeastern Brandenburg, Artprojekt develops tourism projects such as gastronomy and hotel businesses and operates Naturgut Köllnitz, Brandenburg’s oldest fishery with 130 hectares of agriculture and farm-to-table concept.
Honorary posts: Long-term board member of the EU funding LAG Märkische Seen and supervisory board member of Regionalwert AG Berlin Brandenburg (value chains of agricultural production).
Arne Stecher has 25 years of experience in leading functions at Holcim such as project management, change management, corporate development and as Head of Procurement. Since 2019, the registered authorized representative has been heading the decarbonization unit at Holcim Germany with the aim of transforming the German subsidiary of the Swiss Group towards climate neutrality.
Sebastian’s mission is to accelerate circularity with scalable solutions. Helping out with repairs in school at his father’s craft business secretly laid the foundation for FixFirst. He later studied industrial engineering and technology entrepreneurship at ESCP among others and gained experience in the startup and tech world at various stations from Uber to Rocket Internet and consulting – but, he wanted to focus on impact, with FixFirst now being at the right time and place.
Dr. Florian Hofmann writes, researches, and advices on the topics of circular economy, sustainability transitions, business model innovations, and degrowth. He worked for several years as a research fellow at the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration and at the Technical University Berlin. He received his doctorate on the topic of Circular Business Model Innovations from the Technical University of Berlin.
Dr. med. Matthias Albrecht (MD), is a specialist in pediatric and adolescent medicine. He is managing director at KLUG and medical director of the Competence Center for Climate-Resilient Hospitals and Healthcare Facilities (KliMeG).
Previously, after his clinical work at Charité Berlin, he was most recently managing director of Evangelisches Krankenhaus Hubertus and the clinic for MIC in Berlin for 15 years. Krankenhaus Hubertus has made a name for itself throughout Germany as the first hospital certified by the BUND. His extensive knowledge of the healthcare system helps him to support healthcare facilities on their way to climate neutrality and climate resilience.
Dr. Markus Hennecke received his doctorate in civil engineering from Prof. Konrad Zilch at the Technical University of Munich in 2000, after training as a carpenter and studying at the RWTH Aachen. He has been a managing partner in the ZM-I Group since 2000, a test engineer for structural analysis in Bavaria and a test expert for the Federal Railway Authority. In an honorary capacity, Dr. Hennecke is active as a board member of the Bavarian Chamber of Civil Engineers, vice president of the Federal Association of Testing Engineers and chairman of the Association of Testing Experts for Structural Engineering Verification in Railway Construction. He is a member of the BIM Germany advisory board and a fellow campaigner for “sustainable bavaria”. Hennecke has numerous publications in the field of digitalization and sustainability in the construction industry.
Since 2012 Florian Augustin deals with nutrient recycling and top soil production from dry toilets. After his Bachelor in Forest Management at the University of Applied Sciences Eberswalde he shared his knowledge in the start-up “Öklo”. 2019 he founded Finizio – Future Sanitation GmbH. Finizio is one of the leading innovators in dry toilets and recycling systems in Germany.
Dr Ariane Krause is an industrial engineer and has been coordinating the research project “REGION.innovativ – zirkulierBAR” as a postdoc at the Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ) e.V. since 2021. She has a keen interest in sustainable provision of basic human needs such as food, energy and toilets and researches and works in the fields of circular economy, inter-sectional resource management, soil fertility management, resource-oriented sanitation and renewable energy technologies. In her doctoral thesis at the TU Berlin, Krause conducted research on small-scale circular economy in a rural region in Tanzania.
Prof. Dr. Andreas Knie is a political scientist at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) and a university lecturer at the Technical University Berlin. At the WZB, he leads the research group “Digital Mobility and Social Differentiation”. Before that he was research group leader of the team
“Science Policy”. Since June 2018, he has been Head of Scientific Development at Choice GmbH. In 2006, Knie founded the Innovation Centre for Mobility and Social Change GmbH (InnoZ). In addition, from 2001 to 2016, he was Divisional Director for Intermodal Offerings and Business Development at Deutsche Bahn AG. Knie is also active as a advisor for municipalities and organisations on the topics of transport, mobility, digitalisation & sustainability. He is the author of various books and an expert on mobility.
Charlotte Piller is co-founder of the fashion start-up Lotta Ludwigson, which designs and produces clothes according to Cradle to Cradle. During her Master’s degree in Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Copenhagen Business School, Charlotte Piller deep dived into the field of Circular Economy as well as sustainable (material) innovations and business models in the fashion and textile industry. Her experiences in fashion & luxury management in Rome, as SDG ambassador & in the sustainability team of the Global Fashion Agenda in Copenhagen as well as Venture Architect at the Corporate Company builder Bridgemaker contributed to her vision of developing a circular fashion label for a more sustainable fashion industry.
Nhu-Ha Dao is co-founder of the fashion start-up Lotta Ludwigson, which designs and produces clothes according to Cradle to Cradle. Nhu-Ha Dao focused on Innovation & Entrepreneurship early on in her bachelor’s and master’s degree in Industrial Engineering with a specialisation in Electrical Power Engineering at RWTH Aachen University and embarked on the path into the sustainability and start-up scene later on. For over 3 years, she helped build several startups in various startup phases at the corporate company builder Bridgemaker in Berlin, where she also met Charlotte Piller. With the co-founding of Lotta Ludwigson in March 2023, she now combines her interests in entrepreneurship and sustainability to make a valuable contribution to a more sustainable textile industry.
Stefanie Voit is tax accountant and fincancial auditor with more than 10 years experience in auditing and consulting of corporations and concerns as well as longterm experience as a manager in finance division of a major bank.
Today she works as a freelance business consultant for banks, financial service providers and industrial corporations and has dedicated herself to the task to the task of making the ecological advantages from the sustainability discussion, especially from C2C, also visible in business terms and evaluating them quantitatively. In this way, she wants to convince banks and investors of the economic added value of sustainability and C2C.
Virginijus Sinkevičius is the present Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, at the European Commission. From 2017 to 2019, he has been Minister of Economy, and before he was leading the Committee of Economy at the Parliament of Lithuania. Sinkevičius was elected to the parliament in October 2016. Prior, he was a Team Lead for Regulatory Affairs at Invest Lithuania. Sinkevičius holds a BA in International Relations and Affairs from Aberystwyth University and Master‘s degree in European International Affairs from Maastricht University.
Photo: European Union, 2019/Georges Boulougouris
Stefanie Moser has been responsible for the Digital Policy Unit in the Political Consultancy Department of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) since 2017. Prior to that, she worked in the Foundation’s international work, including five years as the FES country representative in Romania and the Republic of Moldova.
Andreas Kunsmann has been part of the Polycare management team since 2019. The company develops circular building solutions and building systems that are deconstructible, micro-modular and reusable. Kunsmann previously worked at Capgemini Invent, among others. His background in engineering, product design and business administration led him over time to the construction industry and to Polycare.
Dr Aurel Ciobanu-Dordea has been the Director for Circular Economy at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for the Environment since May 2022. He has worked for the European Commission since 2009. From 2014 to April 2022, he was Director for Enforcement, Cohesion and the European Semester in the Directorate-General for the Environment. Previously, Ciobanu-Dordea was Director for Equality in the Directorate-General for Justice and Director for Fundamental Rights and EU Citizenship. He holds a Master of Laws from the University of Illinois and a PhD from the University of Bucharest.
Niclas-Alexander Mauss is co-founder of CIRCULAR REPUBLIC at UnternehmerTUM, Europe’s largest center for innovation and entrepreneurship. A decade in the manufacturing industry, the mechanical engineer helped shape the substantial growth and fundamental transformation of the medium-sized German measurement technology company Lorenz Meters to a multi-award-winning circular economy pioneer. In the course of his doctorate at the Technical University of Munich, he initiated CirculaTUM, the now largest Circular Economy research hub in Germany, embedding circularity as a major strategic pillar of the entire university. Parallelly, he built up and led a new incubator at UnternehmerTUM, now counting +50 startups among its alumni. As Co-Founder of CIRCULAR REPUBLIC, he is driven to contribute to large-scale industrial transformation.
As District Administrator of the Lüchow-Dannenberg district in a C2C model region, it is very important to me to try out and implement the principles of a circular economy without waste in people’s practical everyday lives. I have been in local government for almost 40 years and have held many positions, including management positions. As role models, municipalities can make a significant contribution to finding solutions for the necessary climate impact adaptation processes. With the anchoring in our future development concept, a binding integration of C2C into the strategic action concept of the district and thus into the guidelines of our political bodies takes place.
Karen Rauschenbach is President of the Board of Circular Clothing, a dynamic group of Swiss fashion and textile labels. Karen is passionate about sustainable and ethical practices in the textile industry and is committed to promoting the circular economy. As President of Circular Clothing, Karen is paving the way for other labels to enter the circular economy. With the cooperative, she was able to launch the first Cradle to Cradle Certified®️ collection with her own label, The Blue Suit, in 2022, making her one of the pioneers in the Swiss fashion industry.
Having grown up in a tannery Thomas Lamparter became an Engineer in Leather and Shoe Technology and holds an MBA in General Management. He has worked as Program Manager for Automotive Leather company Eagle Ottawa. In Finance at Mercedes-AMG and for Bader Leather as Key Account Manager. In 2014 Thomas joined wet-green as Head of Sales. wet-green has developed an award-winning, C2C GOLD Certified and globally patented tanning agent based on by-products of olive growing to make the so called „Olivenleder®️“. He is actively supporting brands and tanneries globally who aim to become more sustainable and circular.
Aaron Widdig works at Loft Concerts GmbH in booking as well as in the project management of the “Beneficial Events” department. Loft Concerts has been successfully organizing concerts in Berlin since the 1980s and is now one of the city’s major local concert promoters, with around 200 concerts a year at Berlin’s most beautiful venues. Loft Concerts is a co-initiator of the “Labor Tempelhof” project and has since specialized in the area of organizing circular (large-scale) concerts.
Dr. Marike Kolossa-Gehring is a biologist and toxicologist, and Head of the Section “Toxicology, Health-related Environmental Monitoring” at the German Environment Agency. She is the coordinator of the European Programme HBM4EU, a joint effort of 116 partners from 30 countries, the European Environment Agency, and the European Commission. She also manages the German Federal Human Biomonitoring Program consisting of the German Environmental Survey, the Environmental Specimen Bank, the Human Biomonitoring Commission, and the HBM cooperation with the industry to enhance HBM. She co-leads the work packege “Exposure and Monitoring” of PARC, the European Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals, in which the HBM4EU work is continued.
Lewin Fricke is a public relations expert with extensive experience in the construction industry. As Head of Public Relations at TRIQBRIQ AG, he is responsible for the company’s entire internal and external communication.
Claudia Roth (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) has been Minister of State for Culture and Media in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s cabinet since 2021. The former dramaturge and manager of the band “Ton Steine Scherben” has held political office since 1989, has been a Member of the German Bundestag since 2002, was federal chairwoman of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen from 2004 to 2013 and vice president of the German Bundestag from 2013 to 2021.
Hannes Geist is a research associate at the Walter-und-Ingeborg-Hermann-Chair for Power-Ultrasonics and Engineering of Functional Materials (EFM) of Professor Dr. Frank Balle at the Department of Sustainable Systems Engineering of the University of Freiburg. His research focuses on the engineering implementation of circularity strategies (Circularity Engineering), especially on Circular Material Selection, Remanufacturing and Cradle to Cradle Engineering. He is also the initiator and consortium co-lead of the first German cross-industry standard on remanufacturing (DIN SPEC 91472:2023).
Tabea Kaplan is tour manager of the band Die Ärzte and Executive Director as well as Head of Beneficial Events at Loft Concerts GmbH. Loft Concerts has been successfully organizing concerts in Berlin since the 1980s and is now one of the city’s major local concert promoters, with around 200 concerts a year at Berlin’s most beautiful venues. Loft Concerts is a co-initiator of the “Labor Tempelhof” project and has since specialized in the area of organizing (large-scale) circular concerts.
Isabel Gomez started working at Cradle to Cradle NGO in January 2020. As a Member of the Managing Board she oversees the NGO´s departments of Communications and Politics & Society. Previous to that, she was a business and finance journalist for ten years, working for the Financial Times Deutschland, the Wall Street Journal, and Börsen-Zeitung. Isabel holds a Diploma degree in Economics.
Nina Eichinger ist Schauspielerin und TV-Moderatorin und hat schon in frühen Jahren ihre Liebe zur Natur entdeckt. Sie studierte Umweltwissenschaften, Kommunikationswissenschaften und hat u. a. ein Auslandssemster in Australien zum Schwerpunkt Regenwald-Ökologie absolviert. Sie engagiert sich in zahlreichen Organisation und Jurys für eine bessere Welt.
Jens Timmerbeil has been Corporate Social Responsibility Manager at Schwalbe since May 2023. There he is responsible for the climate strategy and greenhouse gas balancing of the manufacturer of bicycle tyres and tubes. Timmerbeil has worked for Schwalbe since 2019, including as a corporate development analyst. Timmerbeil participates in numerous CSR initiatives.
Claude Rieser has been CEO of Flawa Consumer GmbH (new name from the end of 2023: Step Zero AG) since 2019. For the past two years, the company has been focusing on circular approaches and the development of new products in the shoe and sole industry. Rieser has been working for Flawa since 2014, including as Business Development Manager and COO. Previously, he worked for the development organisation Pro Watschinger in Tanzania and as CEO of the construction companies Easy Bautechnik and Protektor Profil, among others. Rieser is a trained production engineer.
Michael Karrer has been Senior Vice President Sustainability & EHS at ZF Group since 2021. He has worked for the ZF Group since 2006 and initially spent five years in the field of strategic logistics, leading projects on inventory optimization, delivery performance and lean logistics in several of ZF’s global sites. For three years, he was project manager for the industrialisation of a truck transmission in Hangzhou, China. From 2014 to 2016, Karrer was responsible for supplier management in the ZF Group, focusing on supplier quality performance, risk management and sustainability in the supply chain. Before joining ZF, he worked as a research assistant at the University of Duisburg-Essen and completed his doctorate on supply chain performance management. Karrer studied International Business Administration in Innsbruck (Austria) and Louvain (Belgium).
Andreas Engelhardt has been chairman of the management board of Schüco International KG since 2012 and was appointed general partner in 2014. Since 2020, he has also been general partner of the metal processor Otto Fuchs. In addition, Engelhardt is chairman of the supervisory board of Surteco SE and of the auditing company BDO. He is a member of the supervisory board of the insulation manufacturer Saint Gobain ISOVER and a member of the advisory board of Deutsche Bank Bielefeld. Engelhardt is also a member of the presidium and board of trustees of the Stiftung KlimaWirtschaft, a member of the ZIA presidium and a member of the board of trustees of the “Lebendige Stadt” foundation. From 1990 to 1995, Engelhardt was a member of the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament. He is a trained industrial clerk and has more than 30 years of professional experience in management responsibility in various companies.
Daniel Aeschbacher has been responsible for professional training at Epea Switzerland since 2022. Previously, he worked as a design manager at Hewlett-Packard in France, at the headset manufacturer Plantronics in California, at the design studio Sottsass Associati in Italy and at the design agency Frogdesign in California. From 2005 to 2022, Aeschbacher was a lecturer in the “International Design Management” course at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. He studied architecture, industrial design, environmental technology and management as well as social transitions.
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Erik G. Hansen is Full Professor and Head of the Institute of Integrated Quality Design (IQD) at Johannes Kepler University (JKU) Linz, Austria and Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Sustainability Management (CSM), Leuphana University of Lüneburg. His research focuses on managing circular innovations at the level of technologies, product-service systems, and business models. He is founder of the MBA Sustainable Business & Circular Economy at LIMAK Austrian Business School. Hansen was member of the steering committee of Circular Economy Initiative Deutschland by acatech – National Academy of Science and Engineering. He gained his doctoral degree at TUM.
Tim Gräsing is co-founder of the food tech startup ReGood as well as owner of a restaurant in Berlin and an F&B business consultancy. He has been involved in the beer industry and gastronomy for over 10 years. Among other things, he worked as a project manager for the Carlsberg Group in Copenhagen and as German Expansion Lead for the Finnish gastro group NoHo Partners. Gräsing completed the executive programme “Circular Economy & Sustainability Strategies” at Cambridge University.
Daniel Venghaus leads the Urbanfilter project at TU Berlin, in which a modular filter system was developed to retain pollutants from the streets’ drainage water. He has been a research assistant in the Department of Urban Water Management at TU Berlin since 2013 and has already led several projects in the field of microplastics. Venghaus completed his apprenticeship as a specialist in water supply technology at the Barntrup waterworks and specialised in the field of urban water management in his subsequent mechanical engineering studies at TU Berlin.
Michael Braungart teaches at Leuphana University in Lüneburg. He is also the founder of EPEA – Internationale Umweltforschung GmbH in Hamburg, the cradle of Cradle to Cradle. In addition, Michael Braungart is co-founder and scientific director of McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) in Charlottesville, Virginia (USA) as well as founder and scientific director of the Hamburg Environmental Institute (HUI). He is the co-founder of the Cradle to Cradle design concept, which is the basis for the European Union’s Green Deal and Circular Economy programs. Together with organizations and companies from different industries, Michael Braungart designs eco-effective products, business models and smart material pooling. In 2007, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Environment by Time Magazine, together with William McDonough.
Photo: Rapahel Gabauer
Dr.-Ing. Peter Mösle has been Managing Director of EPEA GmbH – Part of Drees & Sommer since 2019. He has been working for Drees & Sommer in the field of energy design and environmentally friendly construction since 1996, and as a partner for ESG, sustainability and innovation since 2012. Mösle was a member of the Executive Committee of the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) until 2021, and an honorary member since then. He studied environmental sciences at the University of Stuttgart and the University of Tucson and received his PhD in sustainable construction in 2009.
Prof. Eike Roswag-Klinge, Dipl.-Ing. Architekt BDA is one of the initiators and managing directors of ZRS Architekten Ingenieure, Berlin and chair of the Natural Building Lab at the Technische Universität Berlin. He has been researching, teaching, designing and building climate- and resource adaptive, human architectures in different climate zones for 20 years. His projects range from schools made of clay and bamboo in the global south to the protection of monuments to residential buildings, production facilities and schools made of wood, clay and natural fibres in Europe. His research focuses on climate and culturally adaptive architecture and low-tech building systems. Projects Roswag-Klinge has been involved in received awards such as the Aga Khan Award 2007, the KAIROS European Culture Award 2015 and the Holcim Award 2011 Gold in Asia Pacific. He has been teaching at the Technische Universität Berlin since 2017.
Dr. Patrick Bergmann has been Managing Director of Madaster Germany since 2020. He has been working on sustainable construction and circular real estate for about 10 years. In 2018, Bergmann wrote his dissertation on the topic of “Life Cyle Management in the Built Environment” at the Technical University of Dresden. He then worked in real estate and business valuation at PwC in Berlin and Brussels.
Peter Bachmann is founder, partner and managing director of Sentinel Haus Institut GmbH, which advises private and public building owners and tests and certifies healthier and sustainable building products and buildings. He has held leading positions in the building industry for more than 30 years and was the initiator and project manager of the Sentinel research project (funded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation) from 2004 to 2006. Bachmann is also active as a speaker, author, coach, publicist and trainer. He has already published numerous articles and two books on the subject of healthy living.
Professor Lamia Messari-Becker has been a university professor for building technology and building physics at the University of Siegen since 2013. She is also a policy advisor, a former member of the Federal Government’s Expert Council on the Environment (2016-20), a member of the Federal Ministry of Building’s Expert Group on Future Construction (since 2017), a member of the Convention of the Federal Foundation for Building Culture and a member of the Club of Rome (since 2020). Her areas of work in teaching, research and policy advice are in the fields of sustainable construction, sustainable urban development, climate protection concepts for municipalities and companies, energy transition, mobility of the future, resource efficiency and circular economy, neighbourhood approaches and life-cycle-oriented planning methods. She looks back on more than 50 building and consulting projects as well as more than 80 publications about practical implementations and policy advice.
Anna Trawnitschek works as a project manager at DIN, the German Institute for Standardization, in the field of circular economy. Her work is about all topics that connect standardization with the circular economy. At DIN, Trawnitschek supervises a wide range of projects such as remanufacturing, reverse logistics or circular plastics. With an academic and working background in economics and product design she brings in different perspectives to the topic.
Maike Voss (MPH) is managing director of the Centre for Planetary Health Policy (CPHP) in Berlin. Prior she was managing director for evidence-based policy-making at the German Alliance on Climate Change and Health (KLUG). Before her time with KLUG, she was the head of the Global Health Governance Research Team at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, SWP). Her research focuses on governance for global and planetary health, sustainable development as well as the interdependencies between health, climate and security policy. She is a founding member of Women in Global Health, served on the Steering Committee of the German Alliance for Global Health Research 2021-2022, and was appointed to the Lancet Commission for Synergies between Health Security, Universal Health Coverage and Health Promotion in 2018. Voss teaches at several German universities, including Bremen, Bielefeld, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, and is a freelance moderator. Before joining SWP, she was a research associate at the Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research at the University of Bremen.
Héloïse Le Masne is the Director of Operations at Impact Hub Berlin. After a few years working in the corporate world, Héloïse brought her business perspective into an impact startup where she led customer management and business development. In 2018, Le Masne joined Impact Hub Berlin where she managed programmes such as investor circles and incubators before joining the leadership team, now leading a team of 35 changemakers in the largest space dedicated to impact entrepreneurship in Europe. Le Masne is a German-French Young Leader 2020 and co-initiator of WirVsVirus, a 25 000+ participants hackathon for Covid-19 solutions.
Verena Müller has been head of sustainable residential and commercial real estate at GLS Bank since the beginning of 2023. She has held various positions at GLS Bank since 2009. With the establishment of the Competence Centre Sustainable Real Estate in October 2021 Müller has been focusing on the Cradle to Cradle principle in the construction and renovation of real estate.
Anne Lamp is co-founder and managing director of the Hamburg-based bioeconomy start-up Traceless Materials. The company produces a holistic sustainable material alternative to plastics and bioplastics that is made from food production residues and is fully degradable in nature. Lamp holds a PhD in process engineering and has experience in commercial product development and process scaling. She is also an expert in life-cycle assessments and Cradle to Cradle.
Alexander Maak has been Managing Director of Interzero Circular Solutions Germany since 2021, where he is building up and expanding new business units around the circular economy. Previously, he was Head of Business Development at Interzero. Maak has international work experience from the shipping and plastics industries. He has held positions including CEO of Maak Line, Commercial Director Europe of the Australian corporate Brambels/Chep and Chief Sales Officer of plastics recycler Capka. Maak holds a master’s degree in marketing and finance from the University of Wales, Cardiff.
Tim Janßen is executive director and co-founder of Cradle to Cradle NGO. He majored in Business, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Leadership at Leuphana University Lüneburg and Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg (DHBW). In 2012, he co-founded Cradle to Cradle NGO (C2C NGO) with Nora Sophie Griefahn. C2C NGO connects the fields of business, education, politics, and civil society by creating networking platforms and educational formats. In 2019, the NGO established the C2C LAB in Berlin: the world’s first renovation in an existing building based on Cradle to Cradle criteria. Serving as an educational center, NGO head office, and real-world laboratory, it is here where the C2C school of thought and design concept become reality. As co-executive director, Tim develops strategies to maximize the organization’s impact on society and actively shapes the growth of this young, ever-growing movement. He is a sought-after expert for Cradle to Cradle, Circular Economy and Social Entrepreneurship. He regularly holds keynotes and partakes as panelist at national and international conferences. Furthermore, Tim is a lecturer at DHBW, Leuphana University Lüneburg and TU Berlin.
Nora Sophie Griefahn is co-founder and managing director of Cradle to Cradle NGO. For more than ten years, the environmental scientist has been a sought-after expert on C2C, the sustainable use of finite resources, and the need for materially healthy and recyclable products at political and economic podiums and events as well as in the media. With C2C NGO, she is driving forward a rethink in science, politics, education and society that aims for more than just climate neutrality. Griefahn also holds teaching positions at various German universities.
Klara Geywitz has been Federal Minister for Housing, Urban Development and Construction since 2021. She has also been deputy SPD party leader since 2019 and a member of the SPD party executive committee since 2017. From 1998 to 2013, Geywitz was a member of the Potsdam city council, and from 2004 to 2019 a member of the Brandenburg state parliament. From August 2020 to December 2021, she worked as an audit area manager at the Brandenburg State Audit Office. Geywitz studied political science at the University of Potsdam.
Photo: Bundesregierung/Jesco Denzel
Kurzinformation C2CC21 und Etappen
Etappe 3 | Mönchengladbach
Kurzbios Speaker*innen 3. Etappe DE
04.11.2021 – Pressemitteilung Etappe 3
04.11.2021 – Fotos Etappe 3
Etappe 2 | Mainz
Kurzbios Speaker*innen 2. Etappe DE I EN
07.9.2021 – Pressemitteilung Etappe 2
07.9.2021 – Fotos Etappe 2
Etappe 1 | Freiburg
Kurzbios Speaker*innen 1. Etappe DE I EN
15.07.2021 – Pressemitteilung Etappe 1 – Freiburg
15.7.2021 – Press Release Series 1 – Freiburg
15.7.2021 – Fotos Etappe 1 – Freiburg
C2C Congress 2020 – Pressematerial C2C Congress
2020 – Pressemitteilung
C2C Congress 2020 – ENGLISH: Press Release
C2C Congress 2020 – Printprogramm
PM: C2C Congress 2020: Umweltschutz und wirtschaftlicher Erfolg schließen sich nicht aus, 03.02.2020
PM: C2C Congress 2020: EU-Klimapaket braucht Ergänzung um echte Kreislaufwirtschaft, 31.01.2020