Leo Pröstler
Leo Pröstler (born September 7, 1947 in Eisenerz , Styria ) is an entrepreneur and environmentalist . He is considered a pioneer of the organic mail order business in Germany, which he established with the establishment of the Waschbär Umweltversand . Today Leo Pröstler heads a financial company in the southern Black Forest for sustainable forestry in Costa Rica and works as a management consultant.
Live and act
Origin and work as an engineer
Leo Pröstler was born in 1947 as the elder of two brothers in Eisenerz , Styria , an Austrian mining town. His father was a mining engineer, his mother a businessman. After graduating from high school in Leoben , Austria , in 1965 , Pröstler studied metallurgy at the Technical University of Clausthal and graduated with a diploma thesis on the subject of "Diffusion of nitrogen in iron-carbon compounds". After completing his studies, Pröstler took on a position as sales project manager at Mannesmann . There he was for the sale of metallurgical plants , particularly continuous casting steelmaking in Europe, Iran and North Africa , and from 1978 as a senior project representative in Tehran responsible.
The change in values for environmental protection
An important paradigm shift in Leo Pröstler's life developed during his time as a project manager in Algeria at the end of the 1970s. In his work for sales, he felt the great cultural difference, especially the different value systems between Algeria and Europe. As a manager, he commuted between Annaba , a coastal city on the Mediterranean in the extreme north-east of Algeria, and Düsseldorf to manage the project. In this way, Pröstler noticed the different living conditions particularly intensely, which was a great burden for him. "Then I flew over the cities and looked down at the black mushrooms of the steel works that I sold." He realized that it couldn't go on like this.
Pröstler took this as an occasion to rethink and to leave the management of heavy industry. This was followed by a period of reflection and travel, in which the idea matured to want to change something with arguments and to combine political influence with scientific work. From 1980 onwards, as managing director of the Öko-Institut in Freiburg , he was able to find a platform for this goal . Since, as a trained project manager, he also understood the economic conditions of the economy, he was able to establish the “Ecological Economy” department at the Öko-Institut. It was important to Pröstler to provide the institute with a better economic basis, to work scientifically and at the same time to lobby for a sustainable economy with a view to the citizen and his demand.
In 1984 the Öko-Institut was faced with the question of either growing further or concentrating more in the spirit of a citizens' institute with the aim of promoting civil society and civic engagement through research. "The manager, who actually didn't want to be anymore, now missed an entrepreneurial goal, the efficiency and above all the practical implementation of studies and findings" was quoted later. Pröstler contradicted a strong expansion with growing research assignments and dependencies, without the practical reference for the people. Rainer Grießhammer , who later became his successor at the Öko-Institut, taught these different approaches for a while. Ultimately, however, Pröstler chose the path of separation so that, as an engineer and problem solver, he could concentrate on his pragmatic approach. He then founded his first company in the environmental sector.
The development of the raccoon mail order business
With the idea of providing a kitchen aid to separate waste for the new waste separation law , Pröstler invented the first waste separation system for private households worldwide in 1984. He produced the garbage cabinets and mailed them. This is how Pröstler learned how mail order does not work: to develop a single product that also lasts a long time, is expensive, difficult to send and does not lead to re-orders. He then developed a sales set with ecological cleaning agents and instructions for use for self-mixing, which should cover the entire household, packed everything in a cleaning box made of recycled cardboard and thus founded the raccoon environmental shipping company in 1987. He gradually expanded the range to include other household items, textile and office items. At the same time, with the mail order company Sancho Pansa GmbH, Pröstler created the option of ordering catalogs for third world products and soon had around five thousand items in its range. In 1995, Pröstler and his company took a stake in a wind power park in order to cover the company's energy needs and gave its customers the opportunity to participate financially in the investment via catalog. "Öko-Otto" is what the branch called Pröstler's company half amused, half irritated, " which influenced the media's claim for an ecological range of other mail-order companies in comparison with Otto mail-order .
Gradually, through background information on ecological and economic issues, his catalog became a platform for further energy policy initiatives, such as the electricity saving campaign of his mail order business to shut down a nuclear power plant. In line with its goal of improving the environmental balance of its customers, Pröstler offered an electricity-saving participation package for private households through the catalog. Through a higher awareness of energy consumption e.g. For example, by measuring standby consumption and, for example, using energy-saving light sources, so much energy should be saved together with other customers that a nuclear power plant would be superfluous. With that too, the new company quickly grew into a company with half a million customers.
In 1994 the mail order catalog was so large that Pröstler once again began to think about his own development. The question of how the wood consumption for the large amount of paper for printing the catalog for half a million customers could be compensated for, answered the German Society for Technical Cooperation with the idea of indigenous tree species in Costa Rica, mainly due to the stable political and climatic conditions there to reforest. On the one hand to compensate for your own paper consumption and on the other hand to promote a socially and economically sensible investment in poorer countries. From this idea, which initially came about for marketing reasons, the next paradigm shift developed by Pröstler. The idea of combining his existing experience and part of his profits with the idea of sustainable funding in a third world country motivated him for his new project. In order to help people to help themselves as much as possible, Pröstler initially set up several project funds and set up a medical station in Nepal and a village development project in India. The first tree nursery was established in Costa Rica.
The success of the mail order business forced Prostler to continue investing despite all previous efforts to grow slowly and organically. At the time, his raccoon company was one of the largest in German eco-shipping, with an annual turnover of 68 million marks. At the same time, he took over another ecological mail-order and retail company, Alb Natur Versandhandels GmbH and Alb Natur Einzelhandels GmbH (1999 annual turnover: 20 million DM), which was initiated by the Ökobank and can be financed cheaply. In addition, there was the financial burden from a new logistics center and the "industry-wide noticeable weak demand in the textile sector", which contributed around 50% to total sales. Around 300,000 customers regularly bought from Raccoon and 100,000 from Alb Natur at that time. A few years before he left Waschbär, Pröstler was able to win some investors with whom he continued to run the company. In the following insolvency proceedings, despite full order books, the founding of a private holding company under the leadership of Pröstler to rescue his troubled company failed because the conditions on the " New Market " had deteriorated rapidly within a short time. Pröstler then left the company, which still exists today.
Focus on advice and afforestation
With the “Querdenker” Unternehmensberatung GmbH, which was founded in the raccoon era, a renewed focus on change processes followed. After the turbulent times as a medium-sized entrepreneur came to an end, Pröstler initially advised companies in the field of regenerative energy and direct tea sales. In Günter Faltin , Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Free University of Berlin and founder of the Teekampagne project workshop , he had found a project partner whose motives and founding ideals matched his. As a consultant for sales structures and sustainable management, Pröstler was experienced enough to support Faltin in implementing his idea of socially and ecologically sound tea marketing from the plantation to the consumer. And Pröstler was able to concentrate on passing on his knowledge without having to start a large company again. At the same time he continued to prepare the expansion of his own reforestation project in the Third World.
In 2007, Pröstler had the first investors for its own yield project for reforestation in Costa Rica (→ Forest Fund ). He founded BaumInvest GmbH & Co KG and a closed fund of the same name in Germany and the subsidiary Isla Bosques in Costa Rica and bought a 224 hectare area of former rainforest in the north of the country. This was cut down and largely compacted by the usual intensive pasture management. His son, Stefan Pröstler, got involved in the management of the plantation and more and more took over the day-to-day business, so that Leo Pröstler was able to continue to raise capital for a second and third fund.
While in the first attempt three types of precious woods with around 1/3 teak cultivation were implemented as a small mixed monoculture in island economy, Pröstler later consulted with a network of local forest institutes and environmental associations as well as the authorities in Costa Rica to adjust the orientation. As he became more well-known in the country, together with his son and in dialogue with local workers and experts, he began to develop the cultivation conditions in the direction of sustainable forestry with agriculture. The aim was that the local people in the plantations could also grow useful plants and that a higher biodiversity would serve to secure the timber yield. In this way, over time, the initial idea to compensate for an extensive paper catalog became more and more a sustainable mixed forest concept with various native precious woods on over 2500 hectares of former rainforest, with a socio-ecological approach and FSC and CFS certification as evidence of sustainability.
Guillermo Navarro, head of forest of the environmental organization IUCN and dean of EARTH University in Costa Rica , describes this overall concept of the “vision forest”, as Pröstler calls it, as an attempt to combine sustainability and economic activity and to transfer it to other areas as a model project. Together with his son, Pröstler also gradually opened up the older plantations of his investors for the further agricultural use of the employees and set up working groups on site who are in charge of the day-to-day affairs on the plantation. In the Pröstler concept, the supervision and control of the plantations on site is subordinate to an advisory board elected by the investors and the further development and practical implementation is the responsibility of the reforestation company Puro Verde Paraiso Forestal SA as a partner of BaumInvest under the management of Stefan Pröstler.
Leo Pröstler works on new projects from Freiburg . With the company's own "Value Added Magazine", Pröstler points out current developments and sustainable approaches in the financial and economic sectors.
reception
In 1983, at the time of his first management position for the Öko-Institut Freiburg, the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung wrote :
“The statistical balance presented by Leo Pröstler is quite impressive. 40 members launched the institute in 1997; today, according to Pröstler, there are over 4,000 all over the Federal Republic of Germany who raise an annual budget of 600,000 marks with their contributions. (...) The Öko-Institut works consciously in the border area between politics and science. According to Pröstler, one is a kind of argument provider for the political debate. (...) About the demarcation from "established science", Pröstler explains that it is actually less about research itself than about the correct assessment of the facts. We evaluate the facts more critically, call the polluters by name, point out the specific consequences for those affected and show them how to help. "
In 1994 Pröstler's “raccoon” initiative was recognized by the Ministry of the Environment in Baden-Württemberg for “outstanding achievements in promoting corporate environmental protection and environmentally-oriented corporate management” . Harald B. Schäfer , Baden-Württemberg's Environment Minister at the time: "If such a company didn't exist, it would have to be invented" . Susanne Vieser describes Leo Pröstler in her business portraits of creative entrepreneurs from 1995:
"Leo Pröstler does not see himself as a pioneer of a movement or way of life, but - as he likes to apostrophize it - primarily as a stirrup holder for the environmentally conscious Quelle customer , as a mediator between two worlds that could not be more different: here the one over three centimeters thick Catalog of the retail giant from Fürth (note formerly Quelle-Versand ), which embodies pure consumption; there the maxim of renouncing consumption in favor of the protection of nature and raw material reserves. "Raccoon does not want to create a need," says Leo Pröstler in his company philosophy, "but rather to meet the existing need for conventional products with environmentally friendly alternatives."
His more recent entrepreneurial activity with "BaumInvest" was rated positively in the specialist press. In 2008, the magazine Natur + kosmos chose its fund model as the future project of the month ... as an example of the fact that an investment can combine returns, ecological and social commitment and thus corresponds to the principles of sustainable action.
“This project combines everything that we have developed for many years based on our research and the results from the field. Our knowledge is growing steadily. Only for a few years have we been able to concretise the three success factors for Costa Rica: high quality species, small forests and sustainability. And not just for Costa Rica. What we are doing will spread to all of Central America and part of South America. The tropical countries all have very similar problems. That's why I like the work, the vision of Leo and his company BaumInvest so much. "
Ökotest shows u. a. points out that there is no prospectus report that confirms Bauminvest's earnings projections. The very high entry costs are criticized. The only thing that is certain is that the initiator deserves. The investor needs staying power. Ökotest judges: “The reforestation concept promises a dark green return. The information in the prospectus and contracts is absolutely transparent. ”The Hamburg rating agency GUB also rated the third fund as“ positive ”overall.
The German national initiative "Land of Ideas" chose the Querdenker GmbH von Pröstler as "Selected Place 2011". On the occasion of the competition "365 Landmarks in the Land of Ideas" he was honored by the Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg Kretschmann for his sustainable entrepreneurial activity. In 2012, Costa Rica's President Laura Chinchilla, on the occasion of her visit to Germany, together with the Minister for Economic Affairs Anabel Gonzalez, registered for a visit to the VisionsWald and thanked Pröstler for his economic, social and ecological investment in her country. In 2013, his unconventional thinker company was honored as one of the three finalists of the German CSR Prize in the “Biodiversity Management” category for the preservation of global biological diversity.
Awards
- June 2015: Lammsbräu Sustainability Award 2015
Private life
A broad public discussion about the person Pröstler has not been noticed since his time as head of the Öko-Institut and mail order company. Occasional appearances on television and radio stations are used by Pröstler for his political and ecological projects. In addition, however, there is no public debate about his private life, about any affairs, scandals or quarrels in the projects. Pröstler stays away from investor parties and celebrity events and the tabloids. After his first marriage, which resulted in a son and a daughter and which lasted until 1987, he has been living in Kirchzarten since 1992 in a new civil partnership. In his free time he plays the clarinet, hikes and loves football. His work and the supervision of the plantations regularly take him to Central America with his donors.
Project overview
| Period | Companies | purpose |
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Web links
- Radio interview, SWR1 , November 6, 2009: podster.del: Leo Pröstler, entrepreneur and environmentalist
- querdenkergmbh.de
- bauminvest.de
- visionswald.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ The company “Waschbär”, founded in 1987, is considered a pioneer in environmental shipping
- ↑ Leo Pröstler's date of birth
- ↑ Report IHK Südlicher Oberrhein ( Memento of the original from February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Interview In: DIE ZEIT. July 30, 2010
- ↑ Leo Pröstler in the SWR Landesschau on January 13, 2010 Interview title: "Leo Proestler, entrepreneur and environmental protector" broadcast on November 6, 2009 - time index 19:20 min
- ↑ "In 1980 Pröstler was back in Germany and worked at the Freiburg Eco-Institute" . In: THE TIME. July 30, 2010
- ↑ Geniuses in Jeans - The New Creative Entrepreneurs . Aufbau-Verlag , 1995, ISBN 3-7466-1143-1 , p. 87
- ↑ Garbage can for environmentally conscious people. In: DER SPIEGEL. 37/1985
- ↑ Raccoon Environmental Dispatch - Company ( Memento of the original from December 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ "Öko-Otto" called the branch Pröstler's company half amused, half irritated " . In: THE TIME. July 30, 2010
- ↑ Raccoon's countercurrent initiative. In: StromMagazin. January 5, 2000
- ↑ Leo Pröstler in the SWR Landesschau from January 13, 2010 Interview title: "Leo Proestler, entrepreneur and environmental protector" broadcast on November 6, 2009 - time index 21:25 min
- ↑ Imminent bankruptcy with the takeover of raccoon shipping. In: TAGESSPIEGEL. June 24, 2001
- ↑ # x5D; = 162998 slump in demand in the textile market ( memento of the original from November 26, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Summer 2001, TextilWirtschaft 26 of June 28, 2001, page 020
- ↑ Raccoon bankruptcy and takeover. In: TAZ. August 20, 2001
- ↑ Founding investors of Bauminvest with Teekampange founder Faltin.
- ↑ Environmental players invest in forest projects. In: SÜDKURIER. November 13, 2007
- ^ First afforestation in Costa Rica through a fund
- ↑ Lenz Jacobsen: Returns that grow in the sky. In: Zeit-Online. July 13, 2010, accessed January 17, 2018 .
- ↑ Certification number as well as further information on the FSC certification 2012 ( Memento of the original from February 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Overview of the CFS certifications for sustainability of Bauminvest funds
- ^ EARTH University in English language Wikipedia
- ↑ Prof. Dr. Guillermo Navarro in an interview in Costa Rica 2012
- ↑ New business magazine “MehrWERT” from the Freiburg-based Querdenker GmbH ( memento of the original from February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Quote from Harald B. Schäfer in: Raccoon Environment Forum on the occasion of the award ceremony on January 25, 1995
- ↑ BaumInvest Future Project of the Month of the journal Natur und Kosmos 10/2008 ( Memento of the original from February 22nd, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Quote from Olman Murillo Gamboa, professor of the forestry faculty TEC-Tecnológico de Costa Rica in a film documentation by Marcello Faraggi from 2012
- ↑ Forest investments: On the wrong track. Ökotest, November 27, 2009, accessed June 20, 2018 .
- ↑ Positive assessment of the third fund of the Hamburg rating agency GUB on March 2, 2012 ( Memento of the original from February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Visit of the President of Costa Rica in Berlin 2013
- ↑ German CSR Prize 2013
- ↑ badische-zeitung.de, June 20, 2015: LOB & PRICE
- ↑ Leo Pröstler in the SWR Landesschau on January 13, 2010 Interview title: "Leo Proestler, entrepreneurs and environmental protectors" broadcast on November 6, 2009 - time index 26:30 min
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Comforter, Leo |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian entrepreneur and environmentalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 7, 1947 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Eisenerz , Austria |