German Development Minister Dr. Gerd Müller, TECNARO and 64 brands awarded as GREEN BRANDS Germany 2021

• TECNARO receives the GREEN BRANDS GERMANY for the fifth time in a row with its brands ARBOFORM®, ARBOBLEND® and ARBOFILL® and is also awarded for the first time for the sustainable values and working methods of the entire company.
• TECNARO customers EDDING, UHU, W.AG and Unicorn also among the award-winning companies.
• All award winners receive the unique GREEN BRANDS trophy created by GREEN BRANDS CEO Norbert Lux himself, made of 3D printed ARBOFORM® from Druckhaus Schiner in Krems.

The international brand evaluation organisation GREEN BRANDS has named 65 brands as GREEN BRANDS Germany 2021.

German Development Minister Dr Gerd Müller, who has headed the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) for almost eight years, received the GREEN BRAND Germany 2021 Personality Award. Topics such as climate protection, flight and migration, the fight for human rights, digitalisation, the fight against hunger and poverty, but also global pandemic control are on his political agenda.

Dr Müller fights prudently, courageously and energetically to ensure that people worldwide can live in dignity and that nature and the environment are protected. Dr. Gerd Müller has now been honoured as a GREEN BRANDS Germany personality for his commitment and dedication.

He succeeds Nina Ruge, Hannes Jaenicke, Sarah Wiener and Dr. Franz Alt, who received the award in previous years.

As of 1 January 2022, Dr Gerd Müller will become the new Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in Vienna.

This year, for the fifth time – after 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019 – the "GREEN BRAND Germany" award honours ecologically sustainable brands in Germany that respond to the increasing a-wareness of the population for more sustainability, environmental protection and healthy lifestyles or have been oriented in this way from the beginning. GREEN BRANDS thus honours the brands‘ commitment to climate protection, sustainability and ecological responsibility.

Due to the pandemic, the planned graduation ceremony has been postponed from November 2021 to spring 2022. Nevertheless, the GREEN BRANDS Germany 2021 big book has already been published and can be ordered via the website www.GREEN-BRANDS.org.

The following companies and products were honoured for the first time and received the seal of quality as "GREEN BRAND Germany 2021":

ALDI SÜD, ANTHROVITA, BIO COMPANY, BIO SONNE, BIOBAULA, DasEis, die-ballondrucker.de, dormiente, druckstudio GRUPPE, ERFURT, fischer greenline, GODEL-MANN, NORMA, ORGANIC LINE, PHARMOS NATUR, PlayMais, ProClimate by dm, proWIN, rieser URWASSER, spa vivent, Spoontainable, Super Bio Markt, TECNARO, Trio-dos Bank.

For the first time, the following brands have successfully passed the re-validation and thus receive the seal of approval with one star: Die grünen Helden, die UmweltDruckerei, dm, followfood, GLS Bank, GREEN PETFOOD, Naturhaus, PAPSTAR, Wickel & Co.

For the second time, the following brands successfully passed the re-validation and received the two-star seal of quality: dmBIO, oeding print, RINN, ÜBERWOOD, UHU Re-Nature.

After a successful third re-validation, the following brands were awarded for the fourth time and received the quality seal with three stars: ANNEMARIE BÖRLIND, Bad Bram-bacher, Creativhotel Luise, edding ecoLine, LOGONA NATURKOSMETIK, lokay, Mönchs-hof BrauSpezialitäten, print-pool, SANTE NATURKOSMETIK, WERKHAUS

For the fourth time, the following brands have successfully passed the re-validation process and have been awarded the GREEN BRANDS Germany seal of approval with four stars:

ALANA, AlmaWin, Alterra NATURKOSMETIK, alverde NATURKOSMETIK, BioSeehotel Zeulenroda, DWERSTEG, enerBiO, Klar, Kneipp, lavera NATURKOSMETIK, PRIMAVE-RA, TECNARO – Arboform/Arbofill/Arboblend, ViO.

Description of the award winner TECNARO in the Green Brands Germany Book 2019 page 112
https://green-brands.org/…

Description of "Unique GREEN BRANDS TROPHY made of ARBOFORM®" in the 2019 book page 26
https://green-brands.org/…

About GREEN BRANDS:

GREEN BRANDS is an international, independent and autonomous brand evaluation organisation that awards the GREEN BRAND seal of approval in international cooperation with independent institutions and societies in the environmental protection, climate protection and sustainability sector.

The GREEN BRAND seal of approval is a registered/protected EU guarantee mark for ecological sustainability with an independent, transparent and neutral testing procedure.

The procedure for awarding the GREEN BRANDS is unique worldwide and is divided into three phases. Brands qualify for the elaborate GREEN BRANDS validation procedure on the basis of a representative survey of the population or on the basis of nomination by an NGO, an interest group or a jury member. Only when a benchmark on the GREEN BRANDS index is achieved does the high-ranking jury as the final authority decide on the award and the awarding of the seal.

The members of the GREEN BRANDS Germany 2021 jury are:

Prof. Dr. Carsten Baumgarth (Berlin School of Economics and Law), Markus Blaschyk (Institute for Economy and Environment IWU Magdeburg), Christian Conrad (Culture Development), Frithjof Finkbeiner (Club of Rome), Christine Fehrenbach (Creative Brand Consulting  for a sustainable future. – Board of Hessendesign e.V.), Prof. Dr. Claudia Kemfert (German Institute for Economic Research Berlin), Jan-Marten Krebs (sustainable AG), Prof. Dr. Dennis Lotter (Institute for Sustainable Leadership & Change), Tim Nebel (WBN: Büro für Kommunikation GmbH), Marcus Noack (lifeVERDE.de and Jobverde.de), Martin Oldeland (B.A.U.M. eV), Gerd Pfitzenmaier (global Magazin), Prof. Dr. Stefan Schaltegger (Leuphana University Lüneburg), Prof. Dr. René Schmidpeter (IU – International University of Applied Sciences Munich), Manfred Spaltenberger (Deutsches Institut für Erfindungswesen e.V.), Edith Stier-Thompson (news aktuell) and Tina Teucher (moderator, author and lecturer on sustainability & CSR),

After more than four years of development, the international award procedure for ecologically sustainable brands was first implemented in Austria in 2011 and in Germany in 2012. In 2018 and 2019, Switzerland, Hungary and the Czech Republic were added, and in 2021, development began in Slovakia and Italy. After around 600 validations, more than 250 brands have already received awards.

The GREEN BRANDS process is to be implemented in more than 20 other countries in the coming years.