27/10/24 She works in the lecture hall, in the field and in parliamentary hearings - peatland researcher Franziska Tanneberger is the kind of scientist one would wish for. Engineer Thomas Seidel has developed the “Swiss army knife of electromobility” to combat Germany's “range anxiety”. Secretary General Alexander Bonde and Chairman of the Board of Trustees Kai Niebert told the press before the award ceremony that choosing the winner of this year's German Environmental Award was not difficult.

Tanneberger and Speidel aim to say goodbye to “burning” - in very different ways. The entrepreneur at ADS-TEC Energy is advancing electromobility with fast charging stations. The scientist at the University of Greifswald and co-director of the Greifswald Mire Center wants to stop oxidation by draining peat soils and shows the opportunities for natural climate protection through wet peatlands.
“We should not be content with regularly failing to achieve our climate targets,” says Tanneberger. She appreciates the award because it raises awareness for solutions and because it is a great recognition for the entire peatland team in Greifswald. Its representatives waved reeds for applause.

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also emphasized solutions in his speech: charging stations as self-evident as telephone booths used to be, he imagined. They were everywhere - except in the peatlands, Steinmeier said. In view of the climate crisis, its image is changing from sinister to beneficial. Signals, said Franziska Tanneberger, are sent to us by the peatlands even without a telephone box in them. She would like to use her share of the prize money to fund further research and implementation on climate and biodiversity protection in peatlands and their sustainable use.

About the German Environmental Award:
With the German Environmental Award, the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU) annually honors the achievements of people who make an exemplary contribution to the protection and preservation of the environment. The prize is endowed with a total of 500,000 euros and is presented by the Federal President. Here are the media reports from tagesschau and others.