Chair, Right Livelihood Award Foundation; Germany
Big and successful enterprises prove even nowadays that ethics and business can be combined. In my opinion, only companies with a focus on the wellbeing of their employees and on environmental and healthy products and production will be the ones which will sustain for a longer period.
Monika Griefahn (born 1954) was among the founding members of Greenpeace Germany and served as co-director from 1980 to 1983. She later became Minister of the Environment in the German State of Lower Saxony (1990 to 1998). With Greenpeace she used to organize – among others things – campaigns against the chemical pollution of the North Sea.
From 1984 to 1990 she worked, as the first woman to do the job, on the board of Greenpeace International. She was responsible for building up offices around the world, for example in Russia and Latin America. Moreover, she was responsible for the training and education of new staff and activists. After her service as Minister of the Environment, she became a Member of Parliament in the German Bundestag (1998 -2009). There she was in charge of topics concerning culture and the media, new media and international cultural education policy.
Today Monika Griefahn works as Chief Sustainability Officer for AIDA Cruises and has her own Institute for media, environment culture. It offers consultant services to companies and organizations with the aim to achieve holistic quality in business and society. Monika Griefahn is a member of the SPD (German Socialdemocratic Party).