2018/07/09     Dresden, Germany

Image: Jan Rieger/clever pictures

9 July 2018, Tokyo/Dresden. – The United Nations University (UNU) has appointed Prof. Edeltraud Guenther as the next Director of its Dresden-based Institute, effective 1 September 2018. Previously under the leadership of Dr Reza Ardakanian since its launch in 2012, the Institute (UNU-FLORES) develops strategies to promote the sustainable use and integrated management of environmental resources like water, soil, and waste.

“I am happy to welcome Prof. Guenther as another high-calibre member of the UNU family,” said UNU Rector and UN Under-Secretary-General David M. Malone. “Her valuable knowledge, sterling academic credentials, and extensive research network in the environmental management field will result in even more robust outputs from our Dresden Institute. We look forward to watching her guide the next chapter of UNU-FLORES.”

Prof. Guenther brings nearly 30 years of research and teaching experience to her new position. Since 1996 she has been the Chair of Environmental Management and Accounting, Faculty of Business and Economics, at the Technische Universität Dresden (TU Dresden). She has taught classes in environmental management, environmental accounting, and sustainability management, and conducted research on environmental and sustainability performance, barrier and risk analysis, and sustainable and value-based management.

She is founder and head of PRISMA – Centre for Sustainability Assessment and Policy at TU Dresden (since 2016). Her other roles at TU Dresden have included serving as Vice Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics, Member of the Senate, and Chairperson of the Environment Commission. Prior to joining TU Dresden, Prof. Guenther was a research assistant and project leader at the Bavarian Institute of Applied Environmental Research and Technology GmbH. She has also been a visiting professor at the McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia (USA; 2005–2016), at Kobe University (Japan; 2015), and at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (2017).

“As Director of UNU-FLORES, my priority will be to strengthen the Nexus Approach and consolidate the successful activities started in the founding phase of the Institute,” said Prof. Guenther. “I see huge potential for increasing the research output based on the rich data gained from past, current, and future projects.”

Prof. Guenther serves on multiple journal editorial boards and academic working groups. She has published more than a dozen books, 60 peer-reviewed book chapters, and more than 200 academic articles, and holds a PhD in Environmental Management Control Systems from the University of Augsburg (Germany).

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Media Contacts
UNU HQ, Tokyo: Hillary McBride, UNU Head of Communications
mcbride@unu.edu +81 80 4202 7599

UNU-FLORES, Dresden: Rachel Ahrens, Communications and Advocacy Officer
ahrens@unu.edu  +49 351 8921 9377

View the full press release in English and German.

Download high-resolution photos in vertical and horizontal format here. Use of the photos has to be accompanied by the credit: Jan Rieger/clever pictures.