The Initiator und Chairman
Norbert R. Lux
From an idea to its implementation and realization
Successfully active in international brand marketing for many years, it was exactly this professional phase in the life of the initiator Norbert Lux that led to the initial spark for GREEN BRANDS.
Born in 1956, he has already gained a great deal of experience and knowledge about life, which finally prompted the “German/Austrian” (born in Nuremberg, parents from Austria) to dedicate all his energy and attention to sustainability and the preservation of our environment and nature. Or is it because of key experiences of his childhood, in which his parents always focused on wholefood/organic food and the beauty of creation?
At a time when the word “sustainability”, “bio-boom” and also “the Greens” were virtually foreign words, the trained special education teacher – with years of professional experience – always had a soft corner for nature and the faraway world. Thus Norbert Lux soon abandoned his main focus of study and, after his travels to the “other side” of our earth, he was one of the first travel guide authors for Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii, among other countries. And also here, the rich experience of the magnificent nature on other continents played a key role in the later “retreat”. Almost inevitably, his hobby turned into a profession and, in addition to slide multivision lecture tours through Austria and Germany, Norbert Lux also organized trips to the fifth continent and the South Seas.
The upbringing of his four children and as his father predicted around 1970, the dramatic change in climate and environmental (protection) conditions, made Norbert Lux more and more aware of the need to devote more attention to this topic.
A crisis also means an opportunity for new challenges! After the global tourism crisis (11 September 2001 and the SARS virus and Iraq war in 2003), it was this experience that shaped the further professional phase of Norbert Lux’s life. From then on, he was successful in brand marketing for the international organisation Superbrands, awarding the strongest and best brands in Germany and Austria.
It was 2007 that finally saw the “initial spark” for the new initiative on the GREEN BRANDS mentioned above. And this occurred in a series of episodes! Not only friends and relatives, but also representatives of excellent superbrands “reminded” us not to always “only” honour and promote the ” finest / best / biggest” brands, but rather those who are really serious about sustainability and the conservation of the climate and environment!
The realization
After all, it took around four years until the first GREEN BRANDS Award Ceremony was launched in Austria in March 2011! Austria a coincidence? Not likely! This was preceded by countless consultation and briefings in Germany and the Alpine Republic.
One thing was absolutely certain from the beginning: only through concentrated competence and the bundling of external forces will it be possible to create a serious and transparent procedure. And only such a procedure can and will be sustainable. – All this is light years away from the approach to unspeakable greenwashing campaigns, which we could no longer see or hear.
The intended “bundling of forces and competences” in the sustainability sector was ultimately best and most effectively achieved through the excellent cooperation with partners from Austria. – But this was no coincidence! – Rather proof that great things are also being achieved by this small Alpine republic! Above all, the support and advisory services respectively the active cooperation provided by ALLPLAN/ClimatePartner Austria as well as SERI (Sustainable Europe Research Institute) and the highly competent members of the jury made it possible to achieve the status of a recognised certification procedure for ecologically sustainable brands.
The GREEN BRANDS organization in Germany began the process in 2012 during the first two-year award procedure in Austria and is proud to have formed a highly competent jury in this area as well. Only with their help was it possible to successfully complete the first two-year procedure here as well.
Norbert Lux’s wish and idea to establish the globally unique, three-step awarding procedure for ecologically sustainable brands internationally has become more and more a reality: Talks and negotiations with potential partners in numerous other countries (in Europe up to China, India, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong…) are constantly taking place. However, no “rush job” should endanger the GREEN BRANDS idea. It is too important to stick to the principles before a possibly ill-considered cooperation endangers the whole and leads the GREEN BRANDS philosophy to absurdity.
Today, the organization is awarding environmentally sustainable brands in Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland.
