About your own responsibility:
As a critically-minded NGO, we are used to being viewed critically and scrutinized ourselves. And that’s a good thing. Because where people work, mistakes happen. Are our actions still in keeping with the times? Are we in danger of missing out on social change? Do we tend to think in silos? In our work with international partners in particular, it is extremely important that we constantly question ourselves. At the same time, we must lead by example.
In order to live up to our responsibility, we create transparency as far as possible. All our projects are publicly accessible, we list all the people who work for us and our annual report and the corresponding profit and loss account show what funds we receive and from where.
We are an official signatory of the Transparent Civil Society Initiative. Civil organizations should create trust and transparency.
Information about the institute and our work:
1. name, registered office, address and year of foundation of our organization
Name: Independent Institute for Environmental Issues – UfU e.V.
Address and registered office: Greifswalder Straße 4, 10405 Berlin
Year of foundation: 1990
Contact person for information on this page: Jonas Rüffer
2. statutes, values and eligibility criteria
3. information on tax concessions
We are here for
- the promotion of science and research (Section 52 (2) sentence 1 no. 1 AO)
- the promotion of education and vocational training, including student aid (Section 52 (2) sentence 1 no. 7 AO)
- the promotion of environmental protection including climate protection (§ 52 para. 2 sentence 1 no. 8 AO)
according to the annex to the corporation tax assessment of the tax office for corporations ! in Berlin, tax no. 27/640/53828, in accordance with the notice of exemption dated July 19, 2022 for the 2021 assessment year pursuant to Section 5 para. 1 No. 9 of the German Corporation Tax Act (Körperschaftsteuergesetz) and from trade tax in accordance with Section 3 No. 6 of the German Trade Tax Act (Gewerbesteuergesetz).
4. name and function of key decision-makers
Due to the structure of the association, the highest body in the UfU is the General Assembly. This takes place annually.
Other key decision-makers are the UfU Executive Board, the management and the department heads. The employees are represented by an employee representative body, which also has one seat on the Board of Directors.
5. annual reports
Every year we publish a detailed report on the work of our institute. All publications, employees and projects from the past year are listed there.
6. personnel structure
UfU employs both permanent scientific staff and freelancers. UfU employs trainees, student assistants, research assistants, project managers, team leaders, department heads and administrative staff. The employees are listed on our team page.
7./8. Source of funds, use of funds and balance sheet
UfU is committed to the transparent origin and use of funds. Every year, our annual report lists all projects and the associated origin of our funds. We also publish our annual profit and loss account and a separate list of all donors.
9. corporate affiliation with third parties
UfU is an independent institute and has neither a parent company or subsidiary nor outsourced business operations. As an association and scientific institution, it is important to us that our research is independent and therefore open to results. However, we are a member of numerous associations. We list these in detail.
10. names of persons whose annual payments account for more than 10% of our total annual revenue
In 2022, we received funds from the following individuals & organizations that account for more than 10% of our total annual income:
- Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection
- Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management
- Federal Environment Agency
- Federal Agency for Nature Conservation
- Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Further information on the association’s work: