The Nobel Sustainability Trust just announced the winners of this year’s Sustainability Awards. One of the three awards will be given to Global Footprint Network co-founder Dr. Mathis Wackernagel, recognizing his leadership in implementing sustainability measures. As co-originator of the Ecological Footprint concept, and co-founder of Global Footprint Network with its widely known annual Earth Overshoot Day campaign, this award honors his contribution to measuring and responding to global ecological overshoot. The Nobel Sustainability Trust has entrusted the selection process to the Technical University of Munich (TUM).
The awards will be bestowed upon these three winners on the first day of the Sustainability Summit: on November 20, 2024. It is the second year that the Nobel Sustainability Trust is handing out these awards. The other two awards this year go to Prof. Klaus Butterbach-Bahl and Prof. Jiuhui Qu for their outstanding contributions in the fields of agriculture and water, respectively.
Prof. Klaus Butterbach-Bahl is a German biogeochemist and head of the Danish Pioneer Center for Landscape Research in Sustainable Agricultural Future Trends at Aarhus University. He also conducts research at the Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Atmospheric Environmental Research (IMK-IFU) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. His research focuses on quantifying the environmental impacts of agriculture, particularly in relation to greenhouse gases.
Prof. Jiuhui Qu is the former Director of the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a Distinguished Professor at Tsinghua University, China’s leading university. He has developed a comprehensive technical system “from source to tap,” ensuring safe drinking water in both urban and rural areas while addressing water risks. This initiative has positively impacted more than 200 million people in China and around the world.
This is the second year that the Nobel Sustainability Trust is bestowing Sustainability Awards. Last year’s Awards went to Prof. Elena Bou (category: outstanding R&D in the field of Energy) and Lord Nicholas Stern (category: Leadership in Implementation).
The founders of the Nobel Sustainability Trust, established by members of the Nobel family, having observed the devastation of the world’s vital, natural and non-renewable resources with great concern, created this award to encourage people to take a stand for our future as a species on a life-sustaining planet. They then asked the Technical University of Munich (TUM) to run the selection process.
The awardees will be presented at the 4th Summit of the Nobel Sustainability Trust from November 20 to 21, 2024, held at the University of California in Berkeley, close to San Francisco, CA. Eligible for the award are individuals from science and industry, as well as organizations and companies that promote the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
The Sustainability Summit is open to the public. They only need to register here.
Peter Nobel, Chairman of the Nobel Sustainability Trust, said: “Solving natural resource scarcity, such as water, or adopting sustainable agricultural practices, involve not only scientific breakthroughs but also requires technological innovation, political efforts, and incentives from non-profit organizations. This is what we want to push forward through the Sustainability Awards. The NST is therefore proud of this year’s selection of the three distinguished researchers who all – on an international scale – have addressed the current and future environmental challenges linked to the climate crisis.”
Prof. Michael Molls, Director of the TUM Institute for Advanced Study (TUM-IAS), emphasized: “It takes interdisciplinary research and staying power to achieve sustainability. TUM focuses on interdisciplinary research and sustainability. Together with the NST, we can recognize outstanding results and implementations in science-led sustainability. The outstanding contributions of our three awardees in deepening research and development on sustainability topics and in sharing knowledge beyond their community reflect our mission.”
Dr. Mathis Wackernagel concluded: “It is an amazing honor being recognized by the Nobel family. I am deeply touched by their choice: to identify overshoot as the core driver undermining the biosphere’s ecological stability. I am deeply indebted to the Nobel family and their Sustainability Trust, to the TUM academic selection committee for their hard work, and to Prof. Ernst von Weizsäcker for generously nominating me for this prestigious award.”
About the Awards
The Sustainability Awards recognizes distinguished individuals, organizations, or companies in different fields for their contribution to fostering, innovating, and implementing sustainable solutions for the well-being of our society, economy, and planet at present and in the future.
The TUM Institute for Advanced Study (TUM-IAS) oversees the two-stage competitive selection process. The selection committee consists of internationally renowned experts from academia and industry. The final award committee is composed of professors from TUM.
Further information and links
(photo credit of Mathis Wackernagel’s picture: Nicholas Albrecht; of Klaus Butterbach-Bahl: Klaus Butterbach-Bahl; of Jiuhui Qu: CMG – China Media Group)