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Highly endowed environmental award: recognition for clever inventor and stubborn lawyer
The Hamburg lawyer Roda Verheyen and the engineer Klaus Vossenkaul receive the German Environmental Prize from the German Federal Environmental Foundation. more...
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On Sunday, the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU) awarded the German Environmental Prize to the Hamburg environmental lawyer Roda Verheyen and the membrane filter engineer Klaus Vossenkaul. DBU General Secretary Alexander Bonde praised the award winners at a ceremony in Aachen as “encouragers who show how positive progress can be made.” They embodied “attitude, persistence and innovative strength with a clear compass when it comes to environmental and climate protection”.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier presented the award worth a total of 500,000 euros. He highlighted the exemplary commitment of the award winners: “They show that each and every individual can make a difference.” According to the foundation, the engineer Vossenkaul is the founder and managing director of the company Membion, based in Roetgen near Aachen in North Rhine-Westphalia. The company now has 40 employees and is developing hollow fiber membranes that filter out problematic substances such as microplastics, pathogens and multi-resistant germs from sewage sludge in sewage treatment plants.
The lawyer Verheyen, who is also a member of the Hamburg Constitutional Court, acts as an expert, advises politicians and civil society and drafts lawsuits. She advocates for climate justice and gives people who are affected by climate impacts a voice. The award winner is a courageous campaigner for climate and environmental protection and shows “what makes our constitutional state strong: that citizens can not only criticize government actions, but also have them corrected by the courts,” said DBU Board of Trustees Chairman Kai Niebert.
The environmental prize, which has been awarded annually since 1993, honors personalities who make a decisive contribution to greater environmental, nature, species and resource protection through innovative products, excellent research results or their life's achievements. It was awarded for the 34th time this year. (epd)