Opening
Prof. Dr. Dirk Messner became the President of the German Environment Agency on 1 January 2020. He is an internationally recognized expert on global governance, transformation pathways to sustainability, decarbonization of the global economy, sustainability and digital change, and international cooperation and societal change. Messner was Director of the Institute for Environment and Human Security at the United Nations University in Bonn and Co-Chairman of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU).
Session 1
Dr. Volker Strauß earned his PhD in Physical Chemistry at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. He gained several years of experience in materials science at UCLA and at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, and completed his habilitation in Colloid Chemistry at the University of Potsdam. He now heads the division for "Pharmaceuticals, Chemicals, and Substance Testing" at the German Environment Agency (UBA). In this capacity, he is also responsible for the cross-departmental project group "Chemiewende," which focuses on the transformation of the chemical industry in Europe.
Prof. Dr. Ricarda Winkelmann
Alexander Bercht (Member of the Central Board of Executive Directors of the IGBCE) studied economics and has worked in various positions for the Board of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, in the Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany and the State Parliament of North Rine-Westphalia. Since 2016, he has been working at the IGBCE, where he initially led the Political Liason Office and subsequently headed the Policy Department before taking on the role of Board secretary to the chairman in 2021. Alexander Bercht became a member of IGBCE’s Central Board of Executive Directors in 2023 and is responsible for the Departments Economic and Corporate Policy, Young Generation and Apprenticeships, Education, as well as Corporate Finance, IT and Services.
Marco Mensink
Session 2
Prof. Dr. Dr. Peter H. Seeberger, a chemist, was a tenured professor at MIT and ETH Zurich before becoming director at the Max-Planck Institute in Potsdam in 2009. Since 2021, he is in addition a Vice President of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and since 2023 the Founding Director of the Center for the Transformation of Chemistry (CTC) that received initial funding of €1.25 billion. His research spanning topics from engineering to immunology has been documented in >730 journal articles and >60 patent families and was recognized with >40 international awards.
Peter Seeberger supports diamond open access publishing as the Editor-in-Chief of the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry. He is a co-founder of several successful companies.
Dr. Christoph Günther
Dr. Christoph Gürtler holds a PhD in Chemistry, with postdoctoral research at MIT, and began his industrial career at Bayer AG in 1997 before transitioning to Covestro. He has held various R&D leadership roles, including Vice President for Product and Process Development and Head of Global Industry Academia Cooperations. Since 2023, he leads special projects within Covestro's Innovation and Sustainability department. He chairs the Managerial Employees' Committee of Covestro since April 2022. Beyond Covestro, he is active on scientific advisory boards (e.g. Dechema, Nova Institute) and serves on the executive boards of VAA Chemistry Managers and ULA Deutscher Führungskräfteverband.
Sonja Haider drives sustainable change as the head of ChemSec’s Sustainable Finance division, championing chemical safety and greener investment strategies. She leads groundbreaking initiatives like ChemScore, which ranks global chemical companies on sustainability, and the Investors Initiative on Hazardous Chemicals, a coalition of over 75 firms managing $23 trillion in assets. With a knack for blending financial expertise and environmental vision, Sonja helps investors integrate chemical risks into their strategies and push for cleaner industries. A former advisor to EU sustainable finance policies, she’s shaped frameworks aligning finance with health and ecology in taking pollution prevention and control to the next level. Currently, she’s helping define global pollution reporting standards as part of the Global Reporting Initiative.
Isabel Thoma, Head of Impact at Hamburg-based bioeconomy scale-up traceless®, has played a key role as a founding employee in guiding the company's journey from academic research to today's industrial scale. With a background in technical product design, she combines an innovation-driven, holistic approach with practical knowledge of application markets and the principles of Design for Circularity. Having successfully established the sustainability and communications departments at traceless, she continues to lead both areas today.
Christian Vollmann is CEO of C1 Green Chemicals AG, commercializing a breakthrough homogeneous catalysis for the production of cost-competitive green methanol. Before that, he built three companies to successful exit: MyVideo.de (sold to Pro7Sat1 in 2007), Affinitas GmbH (listed on NYSE) and nebenan.de (Germany’s leading social neighbourhood network, sold to Burda in 2020). Christian has made more than 85 angel investments since 2005 and was named Germany’s Business Angel of the Year in 2017. He sits on the board of Allego B.V., Europe's largest EV charging network and is Venture Partner at PropTech1 Ventures.
Session 3
Kristina Jeromin
Dr. Katrin Ostertag (Head of Department Sustainability and Infrastructure Systems, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI) is a trained economist who has worked in the field of sustainability and innovation for over 30 years. Her department focuses on sustainability issues in mobility, water, raw materials, the circular economomy and the role of digitalisation / AI in those contexts. Impact assessments of novel solutions are part of this research including environmental and social impacts as well as effects on growth, competitiveness, resilience, innovation capacities and sectoral change.
Oliver Loebel is Secretary General of EurEau, the European Water Services Association. The association and its 38 member organisations are committed to protecting our water resources for the benefit of both current and future generations.Until 2016, Oliver was managing director at PU Europe. Previously, he worked as Director of Sector Policy at the European SME association UEAPME, and represented the building services industry through CEETB. Between 1994 and 1997, he worked for the European Commission, developing support measures for Europe’s small businesses. He holds a university degree in Economics and an MBA in International Business.
Kristin Schreiber
Session 4
Break-out Group 1
Since September 2015, Dr. Anna Braune has headed the Research and Development department at the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB e.V.). Her responsibilities include the technical development and updating of the “DGNB Certification System”, which provides incentives for greater sustainability in neighbourhoods and buildings. She is responsible for research projects, supports the association’s technical communication, and works actively within both internal and external committees to drive the transformation towards a sustainable construction and property sector. Her core areas of expertise are climate and environmental protection, the circular economy, resource conservation and sustainable financing. Dr. Anna Braune studied Technical Environmental Protection at TU Berlin and worked as a research assistant at the Chair of Building Physics at the University of Stuttgart from 2004 to 2007. She is a co-initiator and co-founder of the DGNB and headed the secretariat from its foundation in 2007 until the end of 2008. She subsequently held various senior positions at the consultancy firm thinkstep (now Sphera) until 2015. In 2014, she completed her PhD on the topic of ‘Life cycle assessment benchmarks for real estate’.“
Nina Fechler
Dr. Ioannis Hatzopoulos
Nora Jeske is a materials scientist with more than 15 years of experience in electronics manufacturing R&D. As a Senior Key Expert at Siemens, she drives sustainability and circularity, focusing on materials, reliability, and regulatory topics such as RoHS and eco-design. Her work bridges engineering, compliance, and industry collaboration to turn complex requirements into practical solutions, leading initiatives to reduce the environmental footprint of electronic components. In parallel, she contributes to shaping sustainability and regulatory developments across the industry as a member of the Sustainability Leadership Council of the Global Electronics Association and has been recognized as a Siemens Inventor of the Year for her contributions to circular electronics.
Miguel Ramôa is a textile chemist and industrialist with 25+ years in Portuguese dry, spinning, weaving and CMT, and wet-process manufacturing, dyeing, finishing, and industrial innovation across vertically integrated mills. He is VP Commercial & Verticalisation at Ronzino, von Oswald S.A. (Rovo Group). His work centres on turning sustainable chemistry into industrial scalable reality: bio-based dyeing, waterless and single-bath processes, and lower-impact wet processing at production scale. He developed a natural dyeing technology. He holds a degree in Chemistry and a post-graduation in Lean Manufacturing from the University of Minho. He argues that sustainability only works when it is also industrial and economic strategy, not marketing.
Break-out Group 2
Matthias Belitz is a senior executive at the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI). Since spring 2024 he is responsible for Sustainability, Energy and Climate Policy. He is also heading Germany’s energy intensive industries network. Besides working on respective policies, Belitz also holds a leadership position in Chemie³. This initiative supports companies within the chemical-pharmaceutical industry on sustainability matters and engages with various stakeholders outside the industry. Matthias Belitz previously held various positions in finance and controlling at BASF, including international assignments in China and Belgium.
Frank Sibert
Break-out Group 3
Dr. Manuel Häußler studied chemistry at the University of Konstanz, where he completed his PhD in 2021 on novel, fully recyclable plastics, referred to as “Plastic 2.0.” This work was awarded the German Thesis Award in 2022. Based on his doctoral thesis, he founded the company aevoloop GmbH in 2024, which now employs 25 people in Leipzig and is scaling the technology to industrial quantities. Alongside his role as co-founder and CSO of aevoloop, he serves as a research group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces. As a founder and researcher, his goal is to offer alternatives to existing high-volume plastics to enable a genuine fresh start, rather than a mere “Band-Aid solution” to one of the greatest problems of the 21st century.
Dr. Jens Hamprecht
Mara Jensen is Project Manager for Materials & Circularity at WWF Germany, focusing on FMCG and packaging. She is responsible for the strategic development of material-focused issues within the context of circular economy, advises on bilateral partnerships, and contributes shaping the organization’s positioning on these topics at both national and European level. Previously, as Technical Lead at one.five GmbH, she led innovation projects across the full R&D life cycle (TRL 0–7). Her work included translating EU-regulations, industrial applicability, and ecological consideration into coherent material strategy for sustainable packaging alternatives. She holds a M.Sc. in Chemistry from TU Berlin and is advocating for a systemic transformation within the planetary boundaries to drive genuine progress toward a circular economy.
Prof. Dr. Thomas Müller-Kirschbaum is Chief Scientist at Circular Valley. He studied physics, chemistry, and environmental sciences at the University of Cologne and RWTH Aachen University. He spent 32 years at Henkel in Düsseldorf in senior leadership roles, including heading global Research & Development and global Production and Supply Chain for the Laundry & Home Care business. He also led the development of Henkel’s integrated sustainability strategy and, until his retirement in 2020, co-chaired the Henkel Sustainability Council. Today, he serves as an independent advisor on sustainable transformation, focusing on climate neutrality, the energy transition, circular carbon systems, sustainable packaging, and the circular economy. He has led the plastics packaging working group of the Circular Economy Initiative Germany (acatech) and serves on advisory boards including the Fraunhofer Cluster Circular Plastics Economy and the DIN/DKE Circular Economy Board. He is also active as a business angel and investor in circular economy start-ups and teaches Global Innovation Management at Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences.
Dr. Erik Schmolz is a German biologist, zoologist, and environmental scientist specializing in chemical safety, ecotoxicology, pest biology, and biocide regulation. He is currently Head of Division IV (Chemical Safety) at the German Environment Agency (UBA). His expertise includes Environmental regulation and policy, Chemical safety and environmental risk assessment, Biocides and pest control, Insect biology and zoology. He holds a PhD in biology and a lecturer at the Free University of Berlin.
Break-out Group 4
Dr. Henning Friege is a scientist (Ph. D. 1978), manager, and environmentalist. His long-standing career has included roles in public service, private enterprises, non-governmental organisations, and academia (habilitation in 2013). He has gathered experience in resource management, environmental monitoring and international chemicals management, among other fields. In 2014, he founded 'N3 Thinking Ahead', a consultancy firm specialising in sustainable strategies. He also lectures as an honorary professor at the School of Sustainability (Leuphana University, Lüneburg) and Dresden Technical University.
Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Kühr is Head of the UNITAR Bonn Office and Senior Manager of the Sustainable Cycles (SCYCLE) Programme at UNITAR. He is Professor in the Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering at the University of Limerick (Ireland). Before joining UNITAR, he served for more than 20 years in various leadership functions at the United Nations University, including as Director and Head of Programme. His work focuses on circular economy, sustainable electronics, resource management, and international environmental governance.
Frank Michel
Dr. Diana Radovan (Director of Sustainability Policy, Global Electronics Association) leads the engagement of the electronics industry with policy makers on policies related to circularity, the responsible use of materials, due diligence, climate, chemicals, and other environmental topics. Dr. Radovan has 15 years of global regulatory experience in different sectors and a doctorate in physical chemistry from the Technical University of Dortmund in Germany. The Global Electronics Association is the voice of the electronics industry, working with thousands of members and partners to build a more resilient supply chain and drive sustainable growth. The Association advocates for fair trade, smart regulation, and regional manufacturing, and educates stakeholders on industry practices, actionable intelligence, and technical innovations to empower the future. It serves the entire electronics ecosystem and collaborates with governments and companies worldwide to advance a trusted and prosperous electronics industry.
Dr. Bettina Rechenberg works as Director General of division “Sustainable Production and Products, Waste management” at the German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt). She studied biology and has worked at the Umweltbundesamt since 1992 gaining experiences in chemical safety, water protection, sustainable production, resource conservation and material cycles. She is dealing with the analysis of environmental effects linked to raw material extraction, industrial production, consumption and waste management und is searching for sustainable and practicable solutions.
Break-out Group 5
Prof. Dr. Dirk Messner became the President of the German Environment Agency on 1 January 2020. He is an internationally recognized expert on global governance, transformation pathways to sustainability, decarbonization of the global economy, sustainability and digital change, and international cooperation and societal change. Messner was Director of the Institute for Environment and Human Security at the United Nations University in Bonn and Co-Chairman of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU).
Dr. Roland Fornika
Florian Schöne (Managing Director of the German League for Nature and Environment DNR) studied Physical Geography and Soil Science at the University of Trier. After completing his studies, he worked in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for the Environment in Brussels and, until 2001, as a freelancer for the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) in London. From late 1997 until 2015, he worked for NABU/BirdLife Germany in the areas of agricultural policy, bioenergy and nature conservation. Since early 2016, he has been Managing Director of DNR, an umbrella organisation representing around 100 organisations in the fields of animal welfare, nature conservation and environmental protection.
Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker
Break-out Group 6
Prof. Dr. Lilian Busse has been Vice President of the German Environment Agency (UBA) since 2021. She had been Head of Division “Environmental Health and Protection of Ecosystems” at UBA from 2015 to 2021. Prior to that, Lilian Busse worked for 10 years at the California Environmental Protection Agency doing research and policy advising and was also a scientist and Lead of Water Programmes for the State of California. From 2002 to 2006, Lilian Busse has worked as Scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California San Diego. She represents UBA on several scientific advisory boards, committees and boards. Since 2023, Lilian Busse has been an honorary professor at the Technical University of Munich (TUM).
Ulrike Kallee is head of the „Chemicals and Circular Economy“ Department at Friends of Earth Germany (BUND e.V.). She studied Marine Science in Oldenburg and New Zealand. With more than 20 years of experience spanning chemical policy, research, and industry engagement, Ms. Kallee brings deep expertise in environmental health and chemicals management. Throughout her career, she has contributed to numerous studies investigating contamination by hazardous substances in the environment, consumer products, and the human body. She has advised international companies on the substitution of substances of concern, with a particular focus on the textile sector. At BUND, she was instrumental in developing BUND’s ToxFox app, which provides consumers with real-time access to information about products and their ingredients, helping to drive greater transparency, informed choices and substitution. In recent years, an increasing focus of her work has been the resource consumption of the chemical industry and the need for more resource-sufficient production and consumption.
Session 5
Dr. Patrick ten Brink is the Secretary General of the EEB since July 2022, and before that EU Policy Director. He provides political leadership across all the organization's policy areas, oversees the daily management and fundraising of the association. He was the Director of IEEP-Brussels and head of its Green Economy Programme. He has published widely, with books on environmental harmful subsidies, the multiple values of nature, and on voluntary environmental agreements, as well as articles on better regulation, the benefits of EU law, sustainable development, biodiversity policy, transport policy, marine litter, ecological tax reform, green economy, eco-industries and environmental employment, the costs of climate mitigation and EU enlargement.
Veronica Manfredi
Prof. Dr. Joel Tickner (Professor of Public Health, University of Massachusetts Lowell) leads the Sustainable Chemistry Catalyst at the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, UMass Lowell where his group works on research, analysis, and strategy to make chemistry safer for people and the planet. His research led to the establishment and growth of the field of chemical alternatives assessment and the first professional society for the field. He also founded and directs Change Chemistry (formerly (GC3), a powerful value chain network of more than 100 companies, dedicated to accelerating the commercialization and adoption of green and sustainable chemistry.
Closing Remarks
Antje von Broock is an expert in the field of environmental protection and currently Director-General of the Department of Circular Economy, Immission Control and Chemical Safety at the Federal Ministry for the Environment. She holds a Master's degree in Political and Communication Science, which she obtained from universities in Göttingen, Rennes in France, Berlin, and Potsdam. Her professional career is marked by challenging positions that highlight her skills and commitment to environmental issues. She has been the head of the regional office of a Member of the European Parliament and has worked at the organization "Friends of the Earth Germany". Here she started as a consultant for international climate policy, soon headed the climate policy department and finally served as managing director. Ms. von Broock is dedicated to a sustainable and environmentally friendly future. She believes that any conversations that help to understand the perspective and position of another parties are always of great value in order to make progress on the matter and find constructive solutions.