Labor and Environment Foundation

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The Work and Environment Foundation of IG BCE is the sustainability think tank of the mining, chemical and energy union . Its headquarters have been in Hanover since 2001 . Another branch has been located in Berlin since 2018 . The foundation is a member of the Federal Association of German Foundations . The foundation's assets are currently around 3 million euros .

history

The charitable foundation for work and the environment was founded in 1990 by the then IG Chemie, Papier, Keramik . It was thus the first environmental foundation of a trade union in Europe and has remained so to this day. The reason for the establishment was the 100th anniversary of the Chemical, Paper, Ceramics IG. The foundation's capital was DM 1 million . The seat of the foundation was Bitterfeld .

In spring 1991 the IG Chemie, Glas, Keramik in East Germany was dissolved. The dissolution congress decided to use the existing assets to increase the capital of the Labor and Environment Foundation by 6 million DM. First and foremost, the foundation's aim was to work on the pressing issues of environmental rehabilitation and qualification in the current process of change, especially in East Germany after German unification. On the basis of its own studies, the Labor and Environment Foundation began to advise companies, carry out further training and support specific environmental projects. Studies on the work and environmental situation in the chemical industry in the area of ​​the former GDR were carried out and discussed at events. On this basis, recommendations for action were drawn up for sustainable regional structural change. Particular emphasis was placed on working with the employees concerned. While most of the projects on the organization of environmental protection were initially carried out in companies, projects were added later to reorganize waste management in the new federal states through cooperation with municipalities and companies and to take up experience there from the recycling industry and resource protection.

In 1994 the new environment minister in the Kohl V cabinet , Angela Merkel , became deputy chairwoman of the Labor and Environment Foundation and remained so until 1999. In 1997, IG CPK merged with IG Bergbau und Energie (IG BE) and the leather union (IGL) to the Mining, Chemical and Energy Industrial Union (IG BCE), to which the Work and Environment Foundation has been organizationally linked since then.

In 2017, the foundation was reorganized as a sustainability think tank with a strong industrial union and employee-oriented perspective. Since 2018, among other things, several site conferences on the subject of structural change and the coal phase-out have been organized in Lusatia and North Rhine-Westphalia, and studies focusing on regional and structural policy have been published as a result of the coal phase-out. Further events followed from 2019 on the main topics of employment effects of German climate policy, socially fair CO 2 price models, possible employment effects and technological options of a traffic turnaround, digitization and work quality as well as trade union design options with a view to the operational use of artificial intelligence (AI).

organization structure

The foundation has a five-person board:

  • Michael Vassiliadis (Chairman of the Board), Chairman of IG BCE,
  • Herlind Gundelach (deputy), member of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag,
  • Alexander Bercht, Head of Politics and Society, IG BCE,
  • Margit Conrad , former authorized representative for the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate and in Europe,
  • Thomas Wessel, EVONIK, Labor Director and member of the Executive Board

The foundation's advisory board includes:

  • Michael Deister (Deputy Chairman of the Advisory Board) Deputy Group Works Council Chairman Continental AG,
  • Lutz Pscherer (Chairman of the Advisory Board), Chairman of the General Works Council of 50 Hertz Transmission GmbH,
  • Ralf Bartels, IG BCE Head of the Energy Transition / Sustainability Department,
  • Cornelia Harm, member of the BASF SE works council,
  • Peter Jahns, Management of the Efficiency Agency NRW,
  • Gertraud Lauber, IG BCE Reach / Water Management,
  • Harry Lehmann, Federal Environment Agency (UBA), Head of Department I: Environmental Planning and Sustainability Strategies,
  • Christa Liedtke, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy GmbH,
  • Holger Rohn, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, Energy,
  • Stefan Schostok , Lord Mayor of Hanover.

goals and tasks

When it was founded, the foundation described it as its central task to promote improvements in the environmental, working and living conditions of people in a modern industrial society. At the time it was founded, this concern was not a matter of course, the compatibility of work and the environment was discussed controversially at the time. Today, climate change has moved to the center of political perception and against the background of climate change and rapid technological change, the risk of social inequality is growing. In line with its work, the Foundation for Work and Environment today focuses on promoting a successful ecological and economic transformation, for which social justice, good work and democratic participation in the working environment are seen as an indispensable starting point.

The foundation describes the concept of the future as "sustainable development that is compatible with the future". According to the statutes, this means that today's generation must live and work in such a way that they can satisfy their own needs without endangering the future chances of future generations.

According to the statutes, the goals include maintaining social security, work, equality and individual development opportunities and safeguarding them in the long term.

The foundation operates nationwide and, according to the statutes, only supports projects in Germany. However, they can cooperate with foreign partners. Some projects are supported with third-party funds.

Since 2017, the foundation's work has focused on analyzes and studies that are presented in events in specialist circles and in public and that are developed into political recommendations for action in the areas of sustainable industrial policy and industrial work of the future. The empirical focus is on the sectors in the organizational area of ​​the IG BCE (the energy industry and energy-intensive industries). In addition, works councils are trained and supported in questions of the current transformation processes.

financing

The foundation is financed from the interest and income of the foundation capital and from donations. Since 1998, the foundation has been recognized as an organization particularly worthy of support for promoting environmental protection.

Environmental awards

was awarded from 1993 to 2015 (selection)

2002

This award went to the Zwingenberg company SurTec: “SurTec - chemical factory as passive house ” as an example from the manufacturing industry and to “BE-SiNNTE ARCHITEKTUR - from industrial wasteland to culture workshop” for the conversion of the Paulmann factory into residential and commercial units in Wennigsen (“Examples of sustainable industrial and commercial architecture including the landscape and an employee-friendly design of workplaces and the working environment”).

2007

The award winners were the companies Bionade GmbH, SkySails GmbH & Co. KG and Geohumus International GmbH & Co. KG. This year it was aimed at start-ups who make a practical contribution to environmental protection and sustainable development. For applicants from North Rhine-Westphalia, a special award from the State of North Rhine-Westphalia was awarded to DeTec GmbH from Detmold.

2005

The “MIMONA” (Employee Motivation for Sustainability) project of the Federal German Working Group for Environmentally Conscious Management (BAUM) funded by the Labor and Environment Foundation is recognized by the German Commission for UNESCO as a UN project of the Decade for Sustainable Education.

2008

The initiative supported by the Labor and Environment Foundation within the Business and Biodiversity Initiative “Spider silk as a cell framework for artificial organs” was recognized at the UN Conference on Biological Diversity.

2010

To mark the 20th anniversary of the foundation, the foundation presented an environmental prize worth a total of 25,000 euros for successful measures to increase energy efficiency with the involvement of the workforce. 70 companies, administrations and institutions have applied. The main evaluation criterion for the jury was the aspect of employee motivation and participation, as well as whether employees are motivated to energy efficiency who have so far not or hardly come into contact with the topic of energy, as well as the question of transferability to other companies and industries. The prizes were awarded on November 4, 2010 in Hanover. First place went to the city administration of the state capital Hanover, Faculty of Building Management for their project “Tatort” at the Hermann-Löhns-Park depot . The 39 employees there saved more than 40 percent heat output between 2007 and 2009, plus water and electricity. In total, a saving of a good 15,000 euros plus 30.5 tons of CO 2 . The "Tatort" Werkhof is part of a large-scale project "Tatort Büro", which also includes the fire brigade , administrations, museums, leisure homes, libraries and more. 30 percent of the annual savings go to the workforce as a bonus - for improvements in the working environment. 2nd place is shared by Evonik Degussa GmbH, Rheinfelden (Baden) , and Deutsche Edelstahlwerke Specialty Steel in Witten , 2nd place by Currenta GmbH & Co. oHG in Leverkusen and UPM Nordland Papier in Dörpen / Emsland. The Ministry of the Environment of North Rhine-Westphalia donated a special prize of 2,500 euros . It went to Solvay Chemicals GmbH , Rheinberg plant . The Work and Environment Foundation acted as a partner and a. of the Second German Electromobile Congress and the Third Biomaterials Congress.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ www.arbeit-umwelt.de ( Memento of the original from May 6, 2016 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. Articles of Association (PDF) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.arbeit-umwelt.de
  2. ↑ Self-assessment by the foundation, as of February 2020
  3. ↑ work man nature. Anniversary magazine of the Work and Environment Foundation of the IG BCE. Work and Environment Foundation, p. 2 , accessed on March 26, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Federal Association of German Foundations: Environmental Foundations introduce themselves. P. 98 , accessed on March 26, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Mimona: Employee motivation for sustainability. Retrieved February 25, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Spider project at the UN Conference on Biological Diversity. German Association Forum, May 29, 2008, accessed on May 27, 2020 .