It was a premier and a kick off at the same time – the first Club of Pioneers ‘The Editors invite’ event took place in Frankfurt, Germany during the IAA. Thanks to our pioneers and experts from the automobile industry, the night was a great success and we had so much fun that....it won’t be long until the next event and you can be part of it. An event-series worldwide is already in the planning process.Watch our first community clip....

All together 25 pioneers attended at rather short notice to meet and mingle with the Club of Pioneers’ editorial team, the experts from BMW and Loremo in the small restaurant “Blumen” (Flowers) at night.

The pioneers at the restaurant "Blumen"
The program was rather short on purpose: just 7 minutes was all Anton Reisinger, Clean Energy BMW, and Gerhard Heilmaier, CEO of Loremo, got to present their company’s core vision of future mobility and kick off the discussion among the pioneers. Both did a great job, which was proved by the fact that hands-on pioneering took place during the event. Together with Heilmaier, our pioneers developed a design for the new Loremo prototype – all on a piece of paper and drawn by hand!

Anton Reisinger, BMW, explaining the Hydrogen 7Life size and no longer just a vision, two Hydrogen 7 cars were parked in front of the restaurant - ready to take the pioneers for a test drive. And yes, when taking a closer look there is nothing else than water vapour coming out of the exhaust….

Pioneer Boris who just can't believe it...During the day the pioneers also had the chance to visit the Frankfurt Motor Show, IAA, together with the Club of Pioneers team. The team set up dates for presentations, for example with Honda explaining their fuel cell vehicle being released on to the market (US and Japan) by the end of 2008.

Pioneers on stage with the Honda fuel cell vehicle

BMW presented its vision of future mobility with the Efficient Dynamics program. The agenda of the Bavarian carmaker entails three steps. First: The increase in efficiency in the existing one, three and five series. Secondly: The hybridization of the vehicle, shown in the Concept X6 ActiveHybrid. Thirdly: In the long run BMW believes in the hydrogen technology implemented and presented in Frankfurt in the Hydrogen 7.

Christiane Paul is a multi-tasker in the truest sense of the word: She is one of Germany's most successful actresses (winner of the golden camera) and is heavily involved in many charity projects. She is a trained medical doctor, worked as a model, is a happy mum and for a short time - pioneering ambassador for the BMW hydrogen technology. During the BMW event “Markenschaufenster” in Munich, she was handed the key to her new H7.
Paul describes herself as an environmental activist, which is highlighted by her active membership of the “Nature alliance” (Naturallianz), founded by the German minister of the environment Sigmar Gabriel. In this interview with Club of Pioneers she talks about her motivation to test drive the Hydrogen 7 and what else she personally does to live an environmentally friendly way of life.
Foto: www.players.de

Anna Netrebko had her breakthrough as an opera singer in 1995 at the San Francisco Opera. She started her formation in Russia, in the city of St. Petersburg where she won the Glinka Award for singers in 1994.

 

After the San Francisco debut she became known on all major opera stages in the world, amongst them the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Wiener Staatsoper.

 

At the moment Anna Netrebko is doing a concert tour through Germany and Austria. A month ago she decided to become a testimonial for the BMW Hydrogen 7 - and this though she owns no driving license. We met her during her tour asking why she is engaging in environmental matters and when she is finally going to do her license.

 

 

How is your tournee going?Our concerts in Germany are very successful and are mostly sold out. I have even had some trouble getting tickets for family and friends!!! (Laughs). The audiences have been wonderful, and they are very passionate about classical music. Many of them wait hours before and after the concert to get autographs.

What made you decide to drive with a Hydrogen 7 vehicle?

As an opera singer, I have engagements around the world. Therefore, clean air and clean energy are important issues for me. When I learned that I could ride in the first Hydrogen 7 vehicle (and it is a very cool and comfortable car!), I knew that this was important and something I wanted to do.

You do not have a driving license yourself – you however have the full driving pleasure?I have wanted to learn to drive for a very long time. I simply need to find the right time and place to make my license. This new BMW has motivated me to make this happen sooner! It certainly hasn't stopped me from asking my driver if I can drive the powerful and clean Hydrogen 7 by myself!How do you see the BMW vision of a zero emission water vapor vehicle concept?BMW has made a very strong statement to the world by creating this incredible car. We cannot make a conversion to all Hydrogen in a very short time, so this is the perfect place to begin. The Hydrogen 7 will be the leader that will bring this issue to all other car companies as well as all developed countries as we try to make our world a safer and healthier place to live.

How do you see the “new green” movement?It is very important that more and more influential people like Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Al Gore, Bill Clinton, or key players of the entertainment business like Angelina Jolie engage in a better environment for the future. The politicians alone are not able to handle all the sustainability issues of our planet.

Many actors, artists etc. are going green and promote green technologies or sustainable products. Can artists influence the public opinion by doing so?It is one thing to appreciate the work and the performance of an Artist. But what is as important, is to know, if and how an Artist engages himself socially and for the environment. Only if both criteria fit together organically, at least I can really appreciate an Artist personally. Artists have the ability to reach a large public, and I believe it is our responsibility to adopt important causes so that we can use our influence in the most positive way.

What do you personally do to lead a sustainable lifestyle?To be open - to me it is important to make one step after another and to learn more and more on how I can do my part for a greener future. I might not exchange a relaxing hot bath tub after a strenuous perfomance against a cold shower. But more and more hotels
heat this water with solar energy. Another example: I prefer to drive with close to zero emission with my BMW to my show in the next city, where I perfom. Even if a flight would be more time saving.

Living in the US, Austria and Russia: How do people in these different countries see issues of the environment?In Europe and in the US more and more people are very environmentally conscious. In Russia, we have a long way to go to bring these issues before the public. However, the vast majority of Russians live a simpler, 'greener' lifestyle simply due to their lack of financial resources.
Interview: Alex Goerlach
Fotos: BMW pressclub

Is Club of Pioneers now into playing soccer? Well there is nothing wrong about that in generall but we went to the Munich Consultants Cup in order to meet people who would like to get involved together with us in combating climate change. The BMW Inhouse Consulting Team promoted us with our logo on their shirts and we used the breaks between the matches to talk to the people about our Club of pioneers venture. The clip here is the summary of this day and a thank you for the team and all the guys who joined us during the day!The Munich Consultant Cup is the soccer tournament in the Bavarian Capital every summer. As you can see in the clip and on the photos the weather conditions for the 20 teams last Saturday were really challenging: 30° Celsius before noon time.


Between the matches people got the chance to drive the Hydrogen 7 limousine of BMW CleanEnergy.In the evening the award ceremony took place in the Reitschule, a wide known party facility in the heard of Munich. The winners received their cup their, Number One was the team of Bain & Company. The clip here shows you all the highlights of this very day and leads you from the morning till the night! So lean back and enjoy, its made for the participants of the tournament as well as for all the members of Club of Pioneers.

 

Alex and Team

Never had the chance to meet your Club of Pioneers buddies yet? For some of them this wish came true. Last week in Munich at the occasion of a presentation of the Hydrogen 7 Club of Pioneers invited eight "locals" of them to join the party.The Pioneers are: Thomas Heinrich, Denis Witham, Heidi Eireiner, Corinna Thiel, Alex Goerlach, Leonore Heßler und Christian Mangold. Missing in the picture are Marc Girard and Sebastian Schultze who were still working when the party started
In the pouring rain however we had a hydrogen feeling of a special kind. During the event I had the occasion to do an interview with former environmental minister and executive director of the United Nations environmental program, Professor Klaus Töpfer and the German actress Christiane Paul. Once the film material is send to me from Munich to Berlin (this happens if you send that stuff offline...) I will post the clips of the event.

Klaus Töpfer and myself in the interviewWe Pioneers all had a hell of a party and learned a lot about the Hydrogen 7 and I look forward to repeat such a meeting - we will be during a similar event in October in Berlin so we will meet a few of the Pioneers living in Berlin then in person.You guys take care, let's pioneer!Alex

After visiting London two weeks ago for a Conference on Climate Change organized by the Guardian I found it interesting that a lot is talked about sustainabile lifestyle in the London, especially about urban environmentalism.We already met Sir Norman Foster in February in Munich where he gave a splendid speech about his vision of living in the cities in the 21st century. When I read the article of our Pioneer Bart on mingledingle I found the link to a text about a zero emissions home which I would like to share with you:The UK has unveiled its first zero emission home that will set the environmental standard for all new homes in the future.The two-bedroom house is insulated to lose 60% less heat than a normal home.It also features solar panels, a biomass boiler and water efficiency devices such as rainwater harvesting.The design, unveiled at the Offsite 2007 exhibition in Watford, meets rules to be applied in 2016 that aim to make UK homes more energy-efficient.The Kingspan Off-Site's Lighthouse design is the first to achieve level six of the Code for Sustainable Homes - which means the house is carbon neutral.About a quarter of UK carbon emissions come from homes. You find the whole story here