Jury

Steven Baumgaertner is an entrepreneur and expert in brand communication, sales, and tactile marketing. In 1994, he founded cyber-Wear together with Roman Weiss in his parents' basement – with 346 Deutsche Marks, a fax machine, and an Atari computer. Today, the company is the international market leader in sustainable corporate merchandise. As CEO, he relies on multisensory brand strategies and develops innovative branding concepts with global companies. He is also actively involved in industry associations promoting sustainable marketing and appears as a TV and podcast host, where he discusses trends and best practices.

Claus-Christian Eckhardt was appointed in 2001 as professor and director of Lund University School of Industrial Design in Sweden. He studied industrial design at the Braunschweig University of Art. After graduating, he worked for Silvestrin Design, Blaupunkt and Bosch, where later he became head of design. He led the design activities of Tenovis and Avaya. He also a freelance designer since 2000.

Johannes Hilla has been the Sustainability Manager at Avocado Store GmbH since 2022, a leading online marketplace for sustainable products. In this role, he is responsible for evaluating brands and products in terms of their sustainability, further developing sustainability criteria, as well as overseeing internal sustainability management and sustainability communication.

Johannes holds a Bachelor's degree in Sports Economics and a Master's degree in International Economics and Governance from the University of Bayreuth. His approach to sustainability is based on the conviction that sustainability is a continuous process that encompasses many facets.

Uwe Melichar is an expert on circular packaging and design. With his company MELICHAR Bros. he develops solutions for clients around the globe. Before he founded the company he was managing partner at the design agency Factor where he realized packaging projects for adidas, Bosch, C&A, Huawei, MAM, Nestlé, Gardena, Omron, Miele and other clients. MELICHAR Bros. works for clients in Germany, Norway, Finland, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland and in the USA.From 2018 till 2022 he was president of the European Brand & Packaging Design Association and is now the epda vice-president.

Lydia Junker is a designer of sustainable and innovative products at HAMA, a major retail company for accessories. Her career began in textile craftsmanship, where she earned her master craftsman title. In 2008, she graduated with a diploma in Industrial Design from the University of Applied Sciences in Pforzheim. Lydia has been working in product development at HAMA for over 15 years and is passionately committed to the needs of children, parents, and retailers. For her, sustainability, innovation, and quality are the three pillars of a successful product.

Karsten is a trained industrial mechanic for machine and system technology and a qualified product designer. From 2005-2013 he was Director Library & Materials Research, significantly involved in building and managing the world's largest materials library for the New York-based consulting company Material ConneXion. In 2013, the materials expert founded MRC - Materials Research & Consulting, a consulting company for innovative and sustainable product development. MRC advises development departments of well-known companies from Europe, Asia and the USA. In 2019 he founded "The Circular Materials GmbH". The company develops and produces tailor-made materials and products for the circular economy. 

Tanja Kliewe-Meyer is an expert in sustainability with a special focus on the textile industry. As an experienced strategist, she develops forward-looking concepts for sustainable supply chains and recyclable materials. Her in-depth knowledge of the industry, coupled with a clear eye for realisable innovations, makes her a sought-after voice for transformation in the fashion and textile sector. She brings in-depth expertise and authentic commitment to the jury's work.

Sven Fischer is a sustainability consultant and, together with Stephan Ley, managing partner of LUWE GmbH / Gesellschaft für regeneratives Wirtschaften. He and his team advise medium-sized companies and institutions in the areas of sustainability strategy development, circular economy, sustainable product development and CSRD and VSME reporting. He also conducts research into systemic social issues and sustainable AI, is politically active and is involved in other association and jury activities, such as the Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitspreis (German Sustainability Award).

Petra Schmatz studied political science in combination with economics and law at the University of Passau. After graduating, she joined AVR Verlag in Munich in 2004 and has since been writing passionately in various departments for its magazines. As a Bavarian child from the countryside, Petra Schmatz is privately very committed to a sustainable lifestyle. That's why she finds her work as editorial director at green Lifestyle magazine a special highlight of her job and a personal enrichment. She sees tracking down green trends, news and innovations and reporting on them as a great opportunity to make the world a little bit better, bit by bit. In her editorial work, Petra Schmatz focuses primarily on the areas of eco-fair fashion and organic food & beverage.

Stefan Roller-Aßfalg is Head of the Akademie für Textilveredlung and Managing Director of Aka Merch & Textil GmbH, based in Cologne. He is recognised as an expert and networker in the textile finishing market. From 1999 to 2016, he was editor-in-chief of the trade magazine ‘TVP Textilveredlung & Promotion’ (Gruber publishing house). With the ‘’Akademie für Textilveredlung‘’, Roller-Aßfalg has been creating training and further education courses for textile printing, embroidery, promotional textiles, corporate fashion, workwear, team sports, merchandising, machines and technology in cooperation with the textile finishing industry since autumn 2016.

Kiersten Muenchinger is an Associate Professor in the Product Design Program and one of the principles in the Green Product Design Network at the University of Oregon. Muenchinger researches and teaches the intersection of materials, manufacturing and design with an emphasis on sustainability tactics and metrics. Her research utilizes Kansei engineering principles to measure how consumers perceive the sustainability of materials. Kiersten was named “Young Educator of the Year” in 2011by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), and one of the Design Intelligence 30 Most Admired Educators for 2015. Before joining UO, Kiersten was a design engineer with IDEO, Fitch, Sottsass Associatti, and Walt Disney Imagineering.

Nils Bader is Director of the international Green Product Award & Green Concept Awards and the Green Future Club. In this role Nils is responsible for partners, networking events, exhibitions and the development of sustainable showcases. As a consultant for sustainable transformation, he has been supporting companies, governmental institutions and educational institutions in the fields of innovation, strategy and sustainable business model design for more than 25 years.

Head of the Knitting Lab at HTW Berlin, she combines textile innovation with sustainable production. Her research on circular material systems makes her a driving force for a resource-efficient textile future within the jury.