About us

VBU was founded in 1988 as an association of environmental professionals. VBU has about 500 members in all industrial sectors. VBU represents the interests of his members regarding their professional, economical, social, political and legal concerns. This representation of interests belongs to the core-competences of VBU. In details:

In this meaning VBU is engaged in politics, and participates in legislation. VBU gives his members protection and support in all legal questions and legal affairs in connection with their professional concerns (for example: environmental law, labour law, criminal law). VBU gives the opportunity for an interchange of views and opinions, of environmental knowledge and experiences concerning to topical tendencies in the specific industrial sectors in special meetings. The idea behind is, to create a kind of network for all members.

VBU-members can claim these services for an annual contribution of 180 €. This is a lump sum, so that no further charge will be required for the use of these services.

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Our goals 

From Government to public sector to businesses to individuals – we all need to play our part. By working together, we can improve our understanding of what we all need to do to confront the challenges ahead – in particular the risks presented by climate change and the threats of air and water pollution to biodiversity. National and international are in a state of constant change. This has led to challenges such as pollution and climate change and damages to the ecosystems are pressures, environmental professionals need to care. Decades of work to understand and to protect the national resources have taken us a long way. Resources provide opportunities for employment and economic activities. So environmental professionals make a significant contribution to the physical health and well-being of all.

VBU has chosen to consider the following activities that reflect the goals of the environmental management:

  1. Waste – Zero Waste goals and statutory targets, there are still signifcant opportunities to reduce, reuse, recycle and recover waste. By doing so, business will release significant cost savings. Improving waste management systems will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions which contribute to climate change. This would deliver environmental health and social well-being benefits.
  1. Water – Not managing water sustainiably process risks such as less water availbility for businesses and home, poorer water quality, flooding and drought, and risks to fisheries, river ecology and These risks could increase costs.
  1. Air – There are gaps in the management of air quality that continue to impact on ecosystems and well-being. For example, traffic is the biggest polluter in our urban spaces increasing our understanding of how urban environments affect traffic pollution and the impact on health will help planners improve traffic controls and the design of urban space.
  1. Energy – It´s important to save energy and find ways to generate electricity at lower environmental costs. Optimizing the practical processes will ensure that future generations will be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

To sum up . . .

For VBU it is clear, that a range of issues, which are difficult to manage and to regulate is contributing to reducing the efficiency of Germanys ecosystems. Much legislation about the environmental management is not possible to evaluate its success. Our focus is on systems of integrated management. That affect the delivery of ecosystems benefits, which should in turn have the result of lower costs.

 

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Next steps 

VBU will develop its goals approach further. We intend to . . .

  • develop better measures to enable our members to assess level of environmental standards, contribution of well-being,
  • develop our approach to assessing benefits for the environment at different scales using mapping tools and ways of assessing „values“,
  • continue to improve our understanding of the links between natural resources, development of ecosystems and well-being, and
  • given the imperative for a joined-approach, to work with other bodies to refine the use of environmental management as a support tool for integrated planning.

    While this is still work in progress, VBU has the opportunity to use the new legislative frameworks and emerging research to improve the ap-proach of management resources.

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