Thilo Bode at Greenpeace

Executive Director, Greenpeace Germany (1989 -1995)

Greenpeace became the most influential and professional environmental organisation in Germany, by introducing professional management and widening its campaigning profile by opening a dialogue with industry.

Greenpeace Germany sharpened its campaigns, developing into the field of technological innovation. Its successes include:

• the development of "Greenfreeze" technology (CFC and HFC-free refrigeration). The award-winning technology is now steadily occupying all world markets.
  
• the introduction of a totally chlorine-free bleached magazine paper which has a considerable market share in Europe and elsewhere.
  
• the development of the technology behind a radical car engine that is 50% more fuel-efficient which the car industry has now adopted.

Bode championed issues like NGO legitimacy and ecological tax reform (eventually implemented by the German Red/Green government in 1999) and played a leading role in the Brent Spar campaign of Greenpeace Germany.

As an on-the-ground activist Thilo Bode:

• was imprisoned in Canada in 1997 for 5 days after protesting against clear-cut logging at Clayoquot Sound, in British Columbia.
  
• Led an historic protest in Tiananmen Square, Beijing - the first protest of its kind ever to be seen in China.
  

Executive Director, Greenpeace International (1995-present)

At Greenpeace International Thilo Bode established a modern, dynamic organisation;

• transforming the organisation's financial and management systems.
  
• after a period of rationalisation, guided almost all offices towards financial self-sufficiency.
  
• developed new offices in China, South East Asia, and India.

In Campaigning he initiated a new international campaign in the Amazon, a flagship campaign for Greenpeace today. Maintaining an interest in hands-on campaigning, Thilo Bode has spent time aboard Greenpeace's campaign ship in the Amazon and spent time on the Rainbow in south-east Asia.

His Key Campaign Successes as International Executive Director include:

1996:

• After five years lobbying by Greenpeace, the Izmir protocol protected the Mediterranean Sea.
  
• The Barcelona Protocol banned trade in hazardous waste from European Union countries to developing countries in the region.

1997:

• Greenpeace is the first international environmental organisation invited to address the United Nations General Assembly in Special Session.

1998:

• The dumping of offshore installations at sea in the North-East Atlantic was banned after Greenpeace's Brent Spar protest.
  
• The OSPAR conference agreed to phasing-out radioactive and toxic discharges at sea, as proposed by Greenpeace.
• Shell finally agrees to bring its infamous offshore installation, the Brent Spar, to land for recycling. Greenpeace had campaigned since 1995 trying to persuade the oil company not to dump disused installations in the ocean.
• After 15 years of campaigning by Greenpeace, the European Union bans the use of driftnets by European fishing fleets.
• Logging giant MacMillan Bloedel announced it would phase out clear-cut logging in British Columbia, Canada.

1999:

• Nine countries ban the use of harmful phthalates in soft PVC toys for children under three;
  
• The European Union introduces an "emergency" ban on soft PVC teething toys;
  and a major world-wide medical supplier, Baxter International, announced plans to replace PVC in its products.
• Furniture store IKEA announced the phase out all wood from ancient forests unless certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) as being harvested in a sustainable way.
• After pressure by Greenpeace, the "Environmental Crimes" law in Brazil is now being applied: fines against companies using illegal timber from the Amazon increase dramatically.
• Greenpeace starts its GMO campaign, leading to fierce public resistance to the introduction of GMO crops throughout Europe.
  

2000:

• Clayoquot Sound is declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

At Greenpeace International, Bode continued his leading role in the environmental debate, in particular;

• on the relationships between environmental work and civil and political rights in the developing world.
  
• spoke at the 2000 World Economic Forum of business and political leaders,
  
• spoke to the United Nations plenary session in 1997
  
• received several awards (including the Time "Speaker of the Year" award in 1997).
  

Thilo's legacy

The organisation has a clear strategic vision for the future. It wants to;

• enhance its role as catalyst of change in a global society,
  
• reposition itself as a catalyst for environmentally friendly technological innovations,
• actively engage in ensuring that the worldwide internet's potential as a democratic force for activism and change is fully realised,
• make obsolete the development paradigm of Western society (get rich first and clean up later),
• help the developing world avoid the mistakes made by western countries,
  
• have an increasing voice in debating technological progress, the limits of growth and the way of living.