Baden-Wuerttemberg's Ministry for Environment, Climate and Energy Economics has been presenting the award since 2009.It is bestowed every two years for excellent and innovative products in environment engineering. The prize money amounts to 100,000.00 EUR and is apportioned to four categories ("energy efficiency", "material efficiency", "techniques for reducing emissions, treatment and separation" as well as "measurement, testing and control technology") and a special prize of the jury.
All companies with head office or branch office in Baden-Wuerttemberg are eligible. The prize is for products which contribute considerably to resource efficiency and environmental protection and which will be soon introduced to the market or are introduced on the market for no longer than two years. This year's award by environmental minister Franz Untersteller took place on 11th July 2013 in the "Wagenhallen" in Stuttgart.
"We see the nomination as special award for our commitment in the development of innovative environment technology and as a great recognition of our engineers' performances", says Dr. Philipp Zippe, Member of the Executive Board of ZIPPE Industrieanlagen GmbH.
"In companies in Baden-Wuerttemberg, people develop solutions every day with which the production and the products themselves become more and more environmentally benign. Improvements which show the innovation capacity of our local companies and which are environmentally friendly at the same time deserve our particular attention. We honour them with the environment engineering award Baden-Wuerttemberg. The laureates and the nominated companies prove with their presentations that there are intelligent answers to the tasks of today", explained environment minister Franz Untersteller.
He and the panel of experts determined the prize winners and the nominated companies out of 118 applications. The technical leader of the panel of experts is Prof. Dr. Dieter Spath (Leader of the institute Fraunhofer for Industrial Engineering and Organization as well as leader for industrial science and technology management at the University Stuttgart).
The other jurors are Ingolf Bauer (host at SWR), Prof. Dr. Thomas Hirth (Leader of the institute Fraunhofer for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology as well as leader of the Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Plasma Technology at the University Stuttgart), Karl Schmauder (director of ElringKlinger AG), Prof. Dr. Andreas Loeschel (Leader of the field of research in environment and resource economics, environment management at the Centre for European Economic Research GmbH (ZEW) and professor for macroeconomics at the University Heidelberg) and Dr. Ing. Hannes Spieth (director Umwelttechnik BW).