The German Environment Award is one of the highest -doped environmental awards in Europe. This year he goes to the steel flavoring company ZinQ from Gelsenkirchen and the Swiss climate researcher Sonia Seneviratne, as the German Federal Environmental Foundation announces. They are awarded because they are committed to a sustainable circular economy and the climate.
The German Environmental Prize 2025 goes to the management duo Lars Baumgürtel and Birgitt Bendiek from the steel grant Zinq from Gelsenkirchen and the Swiss climate researcher Sonia Seneviratne. They share the prize money of a total of 500,000 euros. The prize is awarded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU) and is one of the highest -doped environmental awards in Europe. He will be awarded this year on October 26th.
Circular economy in steel processing
The ZinQ company galvanizes steel to protect it from rust. Instead of the usual energy -intensive process, in which the metal is immersed in a 450 degree hot zinc melting, the company uses a more sustainable process that requires fewer materials and less energy. Steel parts are also covered with a zinc cover layer, but this is 80 percent thinner than in the conventional process. This is made possible by special zinc aluminum alloys and an efficient zinc bath at 420 degrees. In addition, there are heat recovery, the use of green electricity, optimized control technology and other measures. As a result, this microzinc procedure expects significantly less to be expelled from the climate-damaging greenhouse gas CO2 and less of the raw material zinc.
This means that the company is an “inspiring role model for raw material and energy efficiency and shaped by sustainability and circular economy in a resource-intensive industry,” said DBU general secretary Alexander Bonde. Baum belt and Bendiek would “stand for a company that is exceptionally strong in climate protection and has been promising an important topic for decades with circulation of raw materials”.
Numerous products are made from galvanized steel, including sheets, bridges, balconies, nails, screws, wheelbarrows, containers, railings, machine, vehicle and hall construction, wind energy and solar systems, gutters and guardrails. The zinc coating prevents the steel from rusting and increasing the lifespan of the components. Nationwide, around two million tons of steel parts are coated with zinc annually, including approximately 200,000 tons of ZINQ at 20 German locations. At all 50 European locations of the company, there are around 550,000 tons.
Research and communication on the climate system
The other half of the German Environmental Prize is given the renowned climate researcher Sonia Isabelle Seneviratne from the Federal Technical University of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich). As a researcher, she made the interactions between soil moisture, vegetation and atmosphere visible and brought it into international discourse, according to the DBU.
With her biophysical research, the climate scientist examined the land-climate dynamics and the interactions between water and carbon cycle. In doing so, she has proven that soil moisture, plants and atmosphere work together and strengthen climate change. Because in the dryness, plants absorb less CO2 and release less water. Both contribute to the fact that the temperatures in the atmosphere increase and favor heat waves. With this findings, “she has created awareness of crucial factors of global warming”, which are now also more taken into account in the climate models, according to Bonde. Your research has also contributed to the Swiss Climate and Innovation Act as well as the national dryness platform, a Swiss weather monitoring and early warning system.
However, Seneviratne was awarded not only for her research work, but also expressly for her science communication. She warns the public “with a high level of personal commitment” and in an understandable language of the climate impacts and is committed to climate protection “with the aim of maintaining a planet worth living,” says the DBU general secretary. Among other things, the researcher supports the glacier initiative, has been on the board of the IPCC world climate since 2023 and has largely wrote to its sixth report. She also works as a columnist.
Source: German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU)
