CBS Professor reappointed as member of the German Council for Sustainable Development

New Council for Sustainable Development Faces New Tasks

Berlin, 6/26/2013 – Commenting on today’s reappointment of the Council for Sustainable Development by Chancellor Angela Merkel, Marlehn Thieme, Chairwoman of the Council, says, “Sustainability policy must be taken to a new level. Although Germany has made progress in recent years, not least because of its sustainability strategy, the problems are so large that a policy of incrementalism fails to keep up with them.” Marlehn Thieme welcomes the timely reappointment with the words, “The reappointment is a commitment to stepping up the pace.”
The new 15-member council comprises six women and nine men.

Appointed to the Council for the first time are:

• Prof. Dr. Alexander Bassen
(University of Hamburg)

• Vera Gäde-Butzlaff
(Chief executive officer of the Berlin city cleaning services (Berliner Stadtreinigungsbetriebe, BSR))

• Kathrin Menges
(Executive Vice President Human Resources and Infrastructure Services
Chairwoman of the Sustainability Council at Henkel AG & Co. KGaA)

• Jennifer Morgan
(Program Director, World Resources Institute, Washington)

• Alexander Müller
(Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam)

• Dr. Imme Scholz
(Deputy Director of the German Development Institute (Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik, DIE)

• Prof. Dr. Hubert Weiger
(Chairman of "Friends of the Earth Germany" (Bund für Umwelt- und Naturschutz Deutschland, BUND))

Reappointed members are

• Alois Glück
(President of the Central Committee of German Catholics)

• Walter Hirche
(Former Secretary of State for the Environment, President of the German Commission for UNESCO)

• Prof. Dr. Lucia Reisch
(Copenhagen Business School)

• Max Schön
(Executive director of the initiative 2° – German CEOs for Climate Protection, president of the German Association of the Club of Rome, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the DESERTEC Foundation)

• Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schuster
(Former Lord Mayor of the City of Stuttgart)

• Marlehn Thieme
(Member of the Council of Lutheran Churches in Germany (EKD))

• Olaf Tschimpke
(President of “NABU” (nature and biodiversity conservation))

• Michael Vassiladis
(Chairman of the Industrial Union of Mining, Chemical and Energy (IG BCE))
The Council members will elect a chairperson from among their midst at the inaugural meeting on July 2. Günther Bachmann will continue to function as the Council’s Secretary General. The Council for Sustainable Development was first appointed in 2001 and last reappointed in 2010. It advises the German government in matters of implementing and further developing its National Sustainability Strategy. The Council can also make suggestions and put its own topics on the agenda. It carries the issue of “sustainability” into society and the public sphere. The Council is independent in its choice of themes and forms of action. It comprises 15 public figures appointed for three-year terms.