Department heads - Your experts for special issues
We established several departments as a second organisational level in the association and to ensure and enhance our wide range of services by sharing the workload. As head of department, you will accompany and independently design a thematic focus in the VNU. The following departments are currently in place:
Energy Management
Jochen Buser
Jochen Buser has been working for GUTcert in Berlin since 2003 and manages the divisions emissions trading and energy services. As auditor and environmental verifier he tries to live the motto in a direct dialogue on site: From knowledge to action. In the national standardisation work of the German Institute for Standardisation e.V. (DIN) in Berlin, he is a member of the "Energy Efficiency and Energy Management" working committee for many years. Jochen Buser is also a member of the Committee Management Systems sector of the German Accreditation Body. Since 2015 he is the head of department Energy Management at VNU.
Climate Protection
Stephan Schunkert
Stephan Schunkert is Managing Director of KlimAktiv Consultung GmbH and has been a member of VNU since August 2014. He accompanied the development of the German climate protection strategy and has been active in climate protection for many years. Since 2015 heis the head of the Climate Protection Department at VNU.
Sustainabilitymanagement
Martina Prox
Anna Zubrod
Martina Prox has been a member of the VNU board since March 2018. She represents the interests of VNU in the liaison to the ISO committee ISO/TC207/SC1, here environmental management standards are developed and updated. She takes care of the coordination of the department of sustainability management
Anna Zubrod has been a member of the VNU since 2017 and was elected to the VNU board at the general assembly in March 2019. She is a research assistant at the University of Applied Sciences Konstanz (HTWG) and takes care of the young professionals and the coordination of the department of sustainability management. She accompanies the publications of the VNU e. V. in the section "Organschaften" in the UmweltMagazin.
Environmental Management
Birgit Gieren
Dr. Gieren finished her studies in geology in 1998 at the RWTH Aachen and received her doctorate in 2006 at the Georg-August University in Göttingen. Until 2014, she held a management position in a corporate group company in the field of environmental protection and today runs U.M.S.CON in Aachen on a freelance basis and independently. Her focus is on consulting on environmental protection issues and auditing quality and environmental management systems. Based on her experience, Dr. Birgit Gieren also gives seminars for the training of management system representatives. She has headed the Environmental Management Department since 2016.
Water Risk
Bettina Heimer
Together with Dr. Markus Berger (University of Twente, Netherlands), Bettina Heimer heads the Water Risk department, which deals with the risks for waterbalance and water quality. After studying meteorology, she worked at TÜV Hessen from 1990 to 2001 and from the very beginning was interested in the emerging environmental management systems ISO 14001 and EMAS. From 1995 / 1996 she was thus able to continue to follow her interest in working with people in consulting, training and as a leading auditor / environmental verifier. Due to a private change she left TÜV Hessen, moved to Bochum, got married and became self-employed in order to continue the previous activities. around management systems (environment, quality and energy). She has been a member of VNU's Executive Board since 2001 and has been in charge of the department Water Risk at VNU since 2013.
Business Ethics
Klaus Schuler
Klaus J. Schuler is your contact person for the department of business ethics and the topics around responsible leadership. For more than 30 years he has been working in various companies in the field of executive development. In order to prepare managers even better for ethical reflection, responsible action and sustainable company results, he founded Tripl3Leader GmbH in 2013, for which he has also been managing director since then. Some of his goals in the departmental work is to support the VNU and its members in building a professional network in the field of business ethics and to implement the issue that may initially be perceived abstract in a way that is comprehensible in practice and, above all, relevant to success.
Young Professionals
Emmanuel Kofi Zinsu
Emmanuel Kofi Zinsu coordinated the Young Professionals department since the spring of 2021 - together with Anna Zubrod. After completing a master's degree in agricultural economics at the University of Hohenheim, he joined WOLFF & MÜLLER Holding GmbH & Co. KG in the area of sustainability management & CSR assessments. Previously, he completed further training and certification as an international project manager via GNE, Witzenhausen, and as a CSR manager (IHK Nuremberg). He is currently completing a part-time MBA at the FOM Stuttgart with a focus on sustainable product design and development as well as sustainable financing. One of his goals in the departmental work is to promote and help shape a lively exchange between VNU young professionals and experienced experts.