Former Minister Dr. Monika Griefahn - short biography

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. From 2018 – 2020 she served 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

Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion Mülheim-Ruhr

Member of the Board of Trustees

eFuel Alliance

Chair of the sounding board (since 2021)

Climate Forum Buchholz in der Nrodheide (south of Hamburg)

Chair of the Climate advisory council (since 2021)

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. Since 2021 she serves as co-chair of the Right Livellihood College (RLC).

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
Sustainability 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

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Chamber of commerce Hamburg

Chair ot the environment committee (until 2020)

Nuclear-free Future Award

Jury 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)