After a distinguished academic career establishing his own school in microbiology, in the civil service as undersecretary of state for higher education and minister of youth, and on the international scene as an alternate member of UNESCO's Executive Board, Mostafa Kamal Tolba became the first president of the newly established Academy for Scientific Research and Technology in 1971.

In 1972, he led Egypt's delegation to the Stockholm conference on the Human Environment, thus starting a longlife commitment to environmental issues. In the preparatory meetings leading to the conference, as well as during the conference itself, he played a prominent role amongst developing countries delegations in promoting the view that there are no irreconcilable conflicts between concern for the environment and development. At the time, quite a number of developing countries saw environmental issues merely as problems of pollution and the concern of developed countries. He was nominated, immediately after Stockholm, as the Deputy Executive Director of the newly established United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).  Within two years, he became the Executive Director - a post he held until retiring at the end of 1992.

Under his leadership, UNEP became the small core organisation within the UN family acting as the catalyst spurring governments, business, academia, IGOs and NGOs to meaningful action. UNEP, one of the small-est members in the UN family, could lever-age on the average four times its modest budget to carry out more than a thousand projects.

Pursuing his position during Stockholm, he diligently promoted his philosophy of "Development without Destruction". Its implications are clearly reflected in his speeches, books and in UNEP's programmes, in many fields, and at many levels. It is difficult to single out Tolba's most significant qualities and contributions. He is by nature an optimist who pursues his vision and objectives with remarkable diligence combined with communication skills. His obvious mastery of the subject, sincerity, and dedication to the causes he is pursuing, command the respect of those who deal with him, be they heads of states or ordinary people. As a negotiator he is respected by all parties who usually hold conflicting and, what seems to many, irreconcilable views. He patiently leads them to agree to compromises that many have despaired of reaching.

Combined with this, is his uncanny vision of emerging environmental problems.  As early as the middle seventies, he singled out the issue of stratospheric ozone layer depletion as meriting careful monitoring on the scientific front. At the right moment, he could manage, whether in Vienna, Montreal and later on in London, to formulate the prototype model for dealing with global environmental issues and the effective mechanisms for the transfer of technology and funds to developing countries, as and when necessary. Other examples of his skills as a diplomatic negotiator on the international arena are the Basel, and the Biodiversity conventions concluded after tortuous and tricky negotiations.

Dr. Tolba received too many awards and prizes to be listed here, both from academic institutions, governments and NGOs in many countries. These include six honorary doctorates, thirteen awards and medals, and seven high decorations. He was elected in 1989 fellow of Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine; and in 2006 was elected Member of the Russian Academy of Science.

Dr. Tolba was born in the town of Zifta, north of Cairo in 1922. He graduated with first class honours from Cairo University in 1943, and obtained his Ph.D. from Imperial College, in 1948. He went back to Cairo to become eventually professor in the Faculty of Science, Cairo University, where he is currently emeritus professor.

Back in Egypt, he established the International Centre for Environment and Development (ICED), a not-for-profit organisation financing environmental projects in the less developed countries.

Prof. Dr. Hans-Ferdinand Angel is professor for theology with a focus on religious pedagogic and psychology of religion, and the actual dean of the Catholic-Theological Faculty of the University of Graz. He studied in Regensburg and Paris, and was professor at the Technical University of Dresden.

His publications contain “Naturwissenschaft und Technik im Religionsunterricht“ (1988), „Der religiöse Mensch in Katastrophenzeiten“ (1994) as well as „Religiosität“ (2006).

Philipp Gaggl studied Environmental System Sciences at the Karl-Franzens University of Graz focusing on Business Administration. He also graduated with a Bachelor in Business Administration. During his study period he spent one year abroad at the Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan, as well as at the International Management Institute of New Delhi in India. In 2006 he graduated in Graz. His Thesis dealt with Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainable processes; therefore he got an award of highly endowed scholarships for extraordinary master thesis.
Now he works as a Consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers Austria, the world’s largest professional services firm, placed in Vienna. He’s responsible for the establishment of a Sustainability Competences Group at PwC Vienna.

Martin Herrndorf is an oikos PhD Fellow at the University of St.Gallen since February 2008, doing research on sustainable business innovations in the consumption arena in developing countries from a strategic management perspective. He studied economics and political science at the University of Cologne (Germany).
At the UNEP / Wuppertal Institute Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption (CSCP), he worked for various international public and private sector clients and contributed to various high-profile publica-tions and conferences. He is now working as a freelance consultant and affiliated with the emergia institute (www.emergia.de).
To find out more about Martin, read about his thoughts and projects on www.herrndorf.de.

Roman Jost studied Political Science at the University of Vienna and is currently enrolled in a MBA programme on “Sustainability Management” at Leuphana University Lüneburg in Germany. Since 1995, he is working at Bank Austria where he started as a trainee and followed with positions in Internal Communication, where he first headed the Media Team (Costumer Publications and Internet) and since October 2007, Roman Jost is Head of Sustainability Management.

Mr. Jost is born in Mödling near Vienna, is married and has 2 children.

Clemens Mader, MSc. graduated 2004 in Environmental System Sciences with a special emphasis in Regional Sciences at the University of Graz, Austria. In 2002, he founded oikos Graz, the Student Organisation for Sustainable Economics and Management, and started to engage himself actively and scientifically in the field of education for sustainable development as well as sustainable change processes in regions. In the year 2005, he spent a year abroad in St.Gallen and Zurich, Switzerland to work as president of oikos International as well as at the ETHsustainability Center where he consulted the planning of the sustainability process at the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich. Since 2006, Mr. Mader is research associate at the Department of Geography and Regional Science at the University of Graz. Together with Prof. Zimmermann he established the Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development Graz-Styria (RCE Graz-Styria) which was acknowledged by the United Nations University in 2007. Working for the RCE Graz-Styria, he built up a network of today more than 30 regional and national initiatives aiming to raise awareness for sustainable development and initiating together new innovative sustainability projects. Further, Mr. Mader is lecturing intergenerational and interdisciplinary courses at the University of Graz and is working on his PhD as part of a research project on “Principles for Integrative Change Processes in Regions” funded by the Austrian National Bank. Therefore, he investigates case studies in Cairo (Egypt), Malmö (Sweden) and New York City (USA).

Ines Omann, born in 1972, studied Environmental Systems Sciences and Economics in Graz and Lund (Sweden), where she got a masters degree in 1997. She did her PhD in Ecological Economics in Graz and the University of Leeds (UK). From 1997-98 she was a research fellow at the Institute of Technology and Regional Policy, Joanneum Research, Graz, Austria and in 1999 at the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy in Germany. Since 1998, she is a lecturer in macroeconomics, ecological economics, and sustainability at the University of Graz and the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna. She joined SERI as a researcher in 2004 and is currently leading the group “Integrated strategies for sustainable development”. General focal points of research are integrated sustainability assessment including multicriteria approaches, scenario development, science-policy interfaces, participatory approaches, quality of life research.

Michael Schaller, born in 1964, studied Industrial Engineering at Graz University of Technology. He is the founder and owner of the sustainability agency sustainable (www.sustainable.at). He specialised on CSR, communication of sustainability, human rights issues and development cooperation. Before this, he was secretary general of the Catholic Action of Styria, worked with the UN-industrial development agency UNIDO and spent several years as assistant professor at the Institute of Economics at the Graz University of Technology.

Bettina Steinbrugger was born 1984 in Klagenfurt. From 2002 to 2007 she studied French and Spain at the Karl-Franzens-University in Graz as well as at the Université Toulouse Le Mirail. In 2005, she absolved an internship at Business and Management Consulting in Tunisia. She was strongly engaged in the student organisation AIESEC. Especially in the years 2006 and 2007 Bettina Steinbrugger was in charge of an AIESEC CSR-project. Now she works at respACT (The Austrian Business Council for Sustainable Development) and is responsible for UN Global Compact Activities as well as CSR- awards and TRIGOS (Award for enterprises taking responsibility).

Silvia Thaler studied Environmental System Sciences in Graz at the Karl-Franzens-University as well as at the Technical University of Graz. She also stayed abroad to spend some time at Lund University in Sweden. Now she works as ECOPROFIT® Project Manager at the Environmental Department of the City of Graz.