On 25 and 26 October 2025, the German Environmental Foundation (DBU) presented its German Environmental Award in Chemnitz, one of Europe's most prestigious awards for outstanding achievements in environmental and climate protection. The event kicked off on Saturday with a symposium at which current scientific and practical approaches to circular economy were discussed.
As part of this symposium, Prof. Dr. Melanie Jaeger-Erben also presented the Circular Economy College of the DBU scholarship programme. Meret Jürgens gave a brief insight into her research at the IKK as an input. The successful implementation of a circular economy was then discussed further on the podium. In addition to Prof. Dr Christina Dornack from TU Dresden, Anja Siegesmund (Managing President of the BDE) and Dr Martin Vogt (Head of Resource Efficiency, Circular Economy and Materials, VDI Technology Centre), Christian Schiller (Founder & CEO, cirplus GmbH) also took part.
On Sunday, the awards were presented by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. They went to Swiss climate researcher Prof. Dr. Sonia Isabelle Seneviratne from ETH Zurich and management duo Lars Baumgürtel and engineer Dr. Birgitt Bendiek from the steel galvanising company ZINQ. More information on this weekend as well as links to the live recordings can be found here: https://www.dbu.de/en/umweltpreis/.
