Copyright: Bianca Schüler
Dr. Monika Griefahn is a founding member of Greenpeace Germany and was Co-CEO (1980-1983). She organized campaigns against chemical pollution of rivers and the North Sea. From 1984-1990 she was the first female board member of Greenpeace International and responsible for trainings and founding new offices all around the world.
From 1990-1998 she was Minister of the Environment in the German state of Lower Saxony. She put her main emphasis on working for renewable energy and the phasing out of nuclear power and worked on intelligent products to avoid waste and reclaim ressources.
From 1998-2009 she worked as Member of Parliament in the German Bundestag. Her main responsibilities were in the sectors culture and media, especially new media and foreign cultural policy.
In 2012 she founded the Institute Media, Environment, Culture (IMUK) – a company with advisory services and educational occupation in the sustainability sector. Griefahn is CEO of the Institute.
From 2012 -2018 she was Director for Environment and Community at cruise company AIDA Cruises, too. In that position she accompanied the company’s new alignment towards the use of LNG as sustainable fuel. Since 2018 she serves as Senior Advisor Sustainability to Costa Group (AIDA, Costa and Costa Asia) within the context of her IMUK work focus on the sustainable future of cruising.
Monika Griefahn is engaged in numerous voluntary commitments – among others as board and jury member of the Right Livelihood Award Foundation (“Alternative Nobel Prize”) and chair of the advisory board of the Cradle to Cradle NGO.
Functions
Right Livelihood Award Foundation („Alternative Nobel Prize“)
One of the most recognized awards supporting a new approach to culture and empowerment. Monika Griefahn is board and jury member; an experience which uniquely qualifies her to have an international overview of how cultural innovation has been practiced. For more than 30 years she has been committed to the Foundation. As part of her involvement, she organizes research trips to meet potential laureates, for example in Turkey, Afghanistan and China works for multiplying the laurates work at 10 universities worldwide (see webpage).
Cradle to Cradle NGO
- Founding member
- Chair (2012-2019), chair of advisory board
B.A.U.M. – Bundesdeutscher Arbeitskreis für umweltbewusstes Management
(organization for companies with sustainability principles)
- Head of the advisory council
Hamburger Umweltinstitut (HUI) e.V (association for environmental studies)
- Treasurer
Welthungerhilfe (World poverty and hunger relief)
- Committee member
Stiftung Lebendige Stadt (Foundation for lively cities)
- Member board of trustees
Giordano Bruno Stiftung
- Member advisory council
World Forum for Ethics in Business
- Member advisory council
European Environemnt Foundation
- Member board of trustees
Nuclear-free Future Award
- Jjury member (until 2020)
UNESCO-Commission
- Member (until 2020)
Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur (Foundation for digital gaming culture)
- Chair of advisory committee (until 2016)
Kulturforum der Sozialdemokratie (cultural organization of the German Social Democratic Party)
- Board member (until 2014)
Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag
- Committee member (until 2014)
Festival des Umwelt- und Naturfilms „Ökofilmtour“ (educational organization for films on environment and nature)
- Jury chair (until 2019)
Monika Griefahn GmbH