In December 2022, Eintracht Frankfurt set up an external committee of experts for sustainability, comprising five independent international specialists in sustainability-related subjects.
These experts advise Eintracht Frankfurt on selected topics, evaluate their performance in regard to sustainability and critically analyse all activities. In addition, they bring their knowledge to bear on the various social and political challenges and developments that have strategic relevance to our business activities, whilst at the same time providing ideas for potential new directions.
Their many years of experience combined with their expertise in the ESG sector and extensive networks enable the members to provide an incredible knowledge base for Eintracht Frankfurt to draw on.
MEMBERS
Omid Nouripour is party chairperson of Alliance 90/The Greens and has been a member of the German parliament since 2006. Up until 2021, he was the Greens' parliamentary foreign policy spokesperson.
Nouripour has been a member of The Greens since 1996 and from 1999 to 2003 was regional chairperson of the Young Greens in Hessen. From 2002 to 2006, he was a federal board committee member of Alliance 90/The Greens. Nouripour moved into federal parliament in 2006 as successor to Joschka Fischer, and since 2021 he has been a directly elected member of the German parliament. From 2011 to 2015, he was chairperson of the Frankfurt am Main Green party,
Nouripour grew up in Tehran in Iran, and moved with his family Frankfurt am Main at the age of 13. Up until 2004, he studied German philology, political science, philosophy and law in Mainz. He is also honorary chairperson of the 'bundesAdler' Eintracht fan club in the German parliament.
Veronika Grimm is holder of the chair for economic theory at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. She is chairperson of the Scientific Management of the Nuremberg Energy Campus (EnCN) and director of the Laboratory for Experimental Research Nuremberg (LERN)
In 2020, she was named as a member of the German Council of Economic Experts.
Prof. Dr. Grimm is currently active on a wide range of boards and advisory committees, including the German government's National Hydrogen Committee, the scientific advisory board of the German Ministry for the Economy and Climate Protection (BMWK), the BMWK's “Energy of the future” monitoring process expert committee, the future committee for the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), the German Council of Consumer Issues Experts (BMJV) and the Energy Steering Panel of the European Academies' Science Advisory Council (EASAC).
Prof. Dr. Grimm studied economics and sociology in Hamburg and Kiel and did her post-doctorate studies in 2002 at Humboldt University in Berlin.
Prof. Dr. Benjamin List is a director at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research and received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2021.
Prof. Dr. List currently occupies a wide range of functions, including professor at the Graduate School of Chemical Science and Engineering at Hokkaido University since 2022, member of the Leopoldina National Academy of Sciences since 2018 and member of the advisory board of the Institute for Molecular Science in Okazaki, Japan. He is also the chief editor of the 'Synlett' scientific journal. In addition to the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, Prof. Dr. List has also received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Herbert C. Brown Award for Creative Research in Synthetic Methods in the USA in 2022.
Prof. Dr. List studied at Berlin Free University and did his post-doctorate studies at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main.
Jörg Eigendorf is Chief Sustainability Officer at Deutsche Bank AG. Prior to that, he was head of the sustainability and the communications and social responsibility departments at the bank for over six years.
Up until the end of 2015, he was chief reporter and member of the main editorial committee of the Die Welt media group. In the 1990s, he was economic correspondent for Die Zeit in Moscow. Prior to that, he worked as head of economy, finance and real estate for Die Welt in Frankfurt and Berlin.
Jörg attended journalism school in Cologne and studied economic sciences at the University of Cologne. He has won a number of prestigious journalism awards and in 2012 was named “Economic journalist of the year” in Germany.
Ferdinand Huhle has been Head of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs and Head of Sustainability since 2019 for Mainova, an energy provider headquartered In Frankfurt am Main. Prior to that, he was head of the corporate communications department and head of sponsoring, CSR and sustainability at the company.
Since 2010, Huhle has been deputy advisory committee chairperson of the Sportjugend Frankfurt youth organisation and mentor of the German Sporthilfe und Werte foundation for the promotion of sporting values. He achieved a diploma in sports economics at the University of Bayreuth.
What can football as a popular sport contribute in terms of the push towards sustainability in Germany?
Omid Nouripour
“Football encompasses all social strata and has an incredible reach. Sustainability in football touches many people and helps to create the necessary awareness. It is an important step towards a sustainable and climate-neutral future.”
Prof. Dr. Veronika Grimm
“From efficient uses of resources and energy on matchdays to topics such as social responsibility and health, football has a number of connecting factors when it comes to working on sustainability. The popularity of football as a sport for the masses brings with it the opportunity to reach people from the widest possible variety of backgrounds and social strata. However, it also forces you to take people’s concerns seriously. If some of the debates end up getting nearer to people’s everyday realities, it can create a great deal of acceptance for transformation topics.”
Prof. Dr. Benjamin List
“In Germany and indeed all around the world, football touches an incredible amount of people, regardless of their age, gender or cultural background, and on an emotional, personal level. I believe that it would be a win for us as a society if we manage to get this amazing sport to sustainably reflect environmental awareness alongside other values such as team spirit, respect and tolerance, in particular in its responsibility in terms of work with young people.”
Jörg Eigendorf
“Football has an incredibly broad impact in Germany and thus can achieve a great deal, which is why I am delighted to be supporting Eintracht Frankfurt along their journey to become a role model once again, this time in terms of sustainability.”
Ferdinand Huhle
“Football in Germany brings people together, unites them and strengthens the social fabric. It contributes to people’s health and their leisure activities. Professional and amateur sport also represent an important economic factor, and their reach can increase awareness for effective climate protection, social cohesion and economics. When those involved act in a trustworthy fashion and implement measures that set an example, others will follow, and this enables the community and the environment to benefit in the long term at the same time.”
