Timber construction pioneer and climate researcher receive German Environmental Award
This year, the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU) is honoring two women with the German Environmental Award: Climate researcher Prof. Dr. Friederike Otto and timber construction entrepreneur Dipl.-Ing. Dagmar Fritz-Kramer share the prestigious award, which is being presented for the 31st time and has a total value of 500,000 euros. It is one of the most highly endowed environmental prizes in Europe. The prize will be presented by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on October 29 in Lübeck.
"Both award winners are real inspiration and motivation"
"Both prizewinners demonstrate with outstanding energy in their respective fields that there is no time to lose in the fight against the climate crisis," says DBU Secretary-General Alexander Bonde. According to him, Friederike Otto and Dagmar Fritz-Kramer have achieved something decisive: "They are a real inspiration and motivation to learn from the already obvious consequences of global warming and therefore to implement even more environmental and resource protection every day so that the planet remains worth living on," says Bonde.
Friederike Otto - Connection between climate change and weather
Friederike Otto from Imperial College London has, according to Bonde, "rendered outstanding services as an excellent climate scientist with pioneering research work in the field of attribution science". This discipline, also known as attribution research, investigates the role that climate change plays in weather - "in other words, whether there are links between climate change and extreme weather such as heatwaves, droughts, floods and heavy rainfall", said the DBU Secretary-General.
Founder of the World Weather Attribution initiative
In 2015, the 41-year-old climate scientist founded the World Weather Attribution (WWA) initiative together with her Dutch colleague Prof. Dr. Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, who has since passed away, and played a key role in developing the process of attributing extreme weather events to man-made climate change.
According to Bonde, three factors characterize Otto's work
- the rapid publication of scientifically sound findings on possible links between global climate change and regional extreme weather,
- In addition to research into the causes, the presentation of local consequences of the global climate crisis
- Proposals for effective adaptation measures.
Bonde: "The presentation of sound research in real time is not only groundbreaking for a balanced discourse on climate change, impacts and countermeasures, but also removes the ground from false news. All of this makes global warming real and understandable." According to Bonde, the work of climate scientist Otto and her team "is what enables people to act with foresight in order to arm themselves against the climate crisis".
The current study made waves
A recent WWA study in July attracted attention. The conclusion: without man-made climate change, this year's heatwaves in North America and southern Europe would not have been possible. Bonde: "A clear call for heat action plans and for the fastest possible abandonment of fossil fuels, which contribute significantly to heating up the planet."
https://news.pro.earth/2023/08/02/weltweite-temperaturrekorde-im-juli-sind-klimawandel-geschuldet/
About the person
Climate scientist Friederike Otto is a lead author of the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The physicist and doctor of philosophy was awarded a Petersen Foundation Excellence Professorship in November 2022. As a WWA co-founder, she was named one of the most influential people in the world on the prestigious Time100 list.
Dagmar Fritz-Kramer - "Idea generator for new paths in the construction sector"
Dagmar Fritz-Kramer is the managing director of the Allgäu-based family business Bau-Fritz GmbH & Co KGBaufritz for short, is a "source of ideas for new approaches in the construction sector", according to the DBU Secretary General. Bonde continued: "She and her company are a driving force for the industry and a pioneer for the construction turnaround."
This is because Baufritz relies almost exclusively on wood as a building material for new builds, renovations and extensions - "an excellent climate protector that stores large amounts of carbon and thus prevents the formation of climate-damaging carbon dioxide".
About the person
Graduate engineer Dagmar Fritz-Kramer has been a managing partner in the family business since 2004. The company was founded in 1896 and is now in its fourth generation. The medium-sized company with around 500 employees has its own research and development department and holds more than 40 patents and industrial property rights.
Building sector is key factor for climate neutrality
According to Bonde, the building sector is "one of the key factors if Germany wants to become climate-neutral by 2045 as planned". And for good reason: the building sector accounts for around 40 percent of the 746 million tons of emissions of climate-damaging greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) in Germany, according to Federal Environment Agency statistics for 2022. There is therefore an urgent need to renovate existing buildings in this country - almost two thirds of the approximately 21.4 million properties in Germany fall into this category.
Responsible for two thirds of the waste produced
Baufritz Managing Director Fritz-Kramer also sees her own industry as having a duty, "because it is responsible for almost two thirds of the mountain of waste in Germany". The 52-year-old calls refurbishment, recycling and resource conservation "essential", not least because sand has become a rare commodity. Baufritz primarily processes local spruce wood and, according to its own information, achieves CO2 savings of around 12,000 tons every year through its construction projects. "We need people like Ms. Fritz-Kramer, who put sustainability, environmental protection and resource conservation into practice with foresight, boldness and economic expertise. This is the only way we can achieve the climate targets," said DBU Secretary-General Bonde.
https://news.pro.earth/2022/12/12/wie-sand-am-meer/
Congratulations to the two winners!
Further links:
Photos Otto ©️ guy@strikingfaces
Photos Fritz-Kramer ©️ Baufritz
