As we are now on the lookout for some new change-makers at Club of Pioneers, we thought we would have a look back at some previous pioneers we have presented on the website. Last year we wrote about Ulla Gahn, who at the time had just won the Climate Protection Award from the Deutsche Umwelthilfe . As you can see now from her website, she has gone a lot further than her early events encouraging people to change to environmentally friendly energy providers. Recently she has spoken in the UK and also released her book "Unter Strom” at the Leipzig book fair this year!

Ulla Gahns vision is simple:
She has stood up in opposition to the conventional electrical energy providers and is now propagating the switch to green electricity. Her chosen weapons are smart and sustainable. The model for her advertising campaign for green energy has been the good old Tupperware party (that’s sustainable). In this setting she offers interested contemporaries an overview of all green electricity providers and explains how to change over (that’s smart), and she does it on a voluntary, unpaid basis at that.

Her events bear none of that old-fashioned charm that characterize Tupper parties. The reason for that is Ulla Gahn herself: Her temperament and her manner of explaining. She is convinced without being ideological. And she is pragmatic. The climate protection report of the IPCC really shocked her. And even more shocking for her, as she revealed in an interview, was the fact that nothing has happened since then. Incentives for action were clearly indicated – this statement illustrates her pragmatic approach. For her encouragement, she won the Climate Protection Award of Deutsche Umwelthilfe in the end of August 2007.
In our vodcast the representative of this institutions told us why this Award is made for people like Ulla:

Ulla Glahn has a vision. She has stood up in opposition to the conventional electrical energy providers and is now propagating the switch to green electricity. Her chosen weapons are smart and sustainable. The model for her advertising campaign for green energy is the good old Tupperware party (that’s sustainable). In this setting she offers interested contemporaries an overview of all green electricity providers and explains how to change over (that’s smart), and she does it on a voluntary, unpaid basis at that.Her events bear none of that old-fashioned charm that characterize Tupper parties. The reason for that is Ulla Glahn herself: Her temperament and her manner of explaining. She is convinced without being ideological. And she is pragmatic. The climate protection report of the IPCC earlier this year really shocked her. And even more shocking for her, as she revealed in an interview, was the fact that nothing has happened since then. Incentives for action were clearly indicated – this statement illustrates her pragmatic approach.

Ulla Gahn
Ulla Glahn has changed her energy provider - and that’s why she calls her events “Change to Green Electricity” parties. At the first party in Leipzig 40 guests were present; at the most recent party a few weeks ago in Munich there were 300. Her pragmatism is contagious. In order to switch electricity providers, next to determination one needs only to complete a few formalities. Ulla Glahn describes these clearly, and that’s the reason her parties are such a huge success. Green electricity is energy from renewable sources. An increased percentage of renewable energy sources in the energy mix of every member country in the European Union is very high on the agenda. Maybe that’s why Ulla Glahn already has offers from Switzerland and Spain to conduct her “Change to Green Electricity” parties there. Her ultimate dream is that her movement will one day extend over the sea to America. She won the Climate Protection Award of Deutsche Umwelthilfe in the end of August. In our vodcast the representative of this institutions told us why this Award is made for people like Ulla.