Georg Winter
www.inem.org. Dr. Georg Winter was born in Hamburg in 1941, and is recognised in Germany and abroad as an innovator in the development and dissemination of environmental business management. He gained the attention of business circles by demonstrating that environmental protection, integrated in product development, marketing and materials management, can also help to increase business success. As early as 1972, Georg Winter adopted environmental protection as one of the primary goals of Ernst Winter & Sohn GmbH & Co., where he served as director until 1995. From the seventies onwards, he developed the first "integrated system of environmental management", and put it into practice.
In 1985/86 he initiated the construction of the first building in Germany designed systematically to meet environmental principles. In 1986/87, Georg Winter published the first book ever dedicated to environmental management, in response to a request by the Commission of the European Union. It’s called "Das umweltbewusste Unternehmen" (English title: "Business and the Environment"). In 1984/85 he created B.A.U.M. (the German Environmental Management Association), and in 1991 he set up the International Network for Environmental Management (INEM).
In 1995 Dr. Georg Winter was honoured for his commitment by the “German Environmental Award” of the German Federal Foundation for the Environment (DBU).The House of the Future, an international model project, was opened by Dr. Winter in 1998. It accommodates some twenty non-profit associations, together with companies on the borderline between environment and commerce, and gives them the added value of mutual synergy. A number of these organisations have their core competence in the development and dissemination of environmental management. The building itself has been refitted from top to bottom, with a new design systematically meeting environmental principles, and in 1991 it became the first building to receive the Eco-Building Pass for environmentally sound buildings.