Michael Kuhndt

Michael Kuhndt is the Executive Director of the Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production. He coordinates the Centre’s contribution towards the 10 Year Framework of Programmes (10 YFP) on Sustainable Consumption and Production.

He has successfully directed a number of projects in the fields of Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) and climate change, policy assessment, sustainable business models, SCP indicators, technology assessment, triple bottom line innovation management, sustainable and strategic consumption, lifestyle patterns as well as scenario-building for sustainable living in the future. 

As project director of projects with a variety of clients, he has worked with organisations such as UNEP, UNIDO, Worldbank, ILO, the European Commission, European Environment Agency, World Economic Forum, World Business Council on Sustainable Development, GIZ, the Global Reporting Initiative, the Global eSustainability Initiative and various other national and international initiatives and networks.

In addition, he implemented programmes for numerous multinational companies including the European Aluminium Association, Rewe Group, Metro Cash&Carry, PUMA, Henkel, Nestlé, Barclays Bank, Canon, EMI, Hewlett Packard, Nokia, Matsushita, Motorola and Deutsche Telekom.

Michael Kuhndt has been Co-Chairman of the Task Force on Sustainable Consumption and Green Development at the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) and a member of various international advisory boards as well as expert groups and has been lecturing at several universities.

Michael Kuhndt studied chemical engineering and environmental management and policy in Germany, Sweden and the USA.

After gaining professional experience in the development and application of environmental and social information for management decisions at a German bank and some corporations, including Saturn and General Motors (USA), he worked for the European Commission on linking environmental information demand and supply in industry and science.  He was a senior consultant of the “Sustainable Production and Consumption Department” at the Wuppertal Institute and a senior advisor at the United Nations Environment Programme. He was the founding director of triple innova, one of Germany’s leading innovation research centres.

Michael Kuhndt is a German national.