Bernhard Gerl

Head of Ecodesign | Circular Economy | Digital Product Passport

Munich, Bavaria, Germany

About

Driven by a strong passion for technology, sustainability, and people leadership, I combine innovation with future-oriented product development. After earning my degree in Mechanical Engineering, I led large-scale international projects as a Project Engineer in special-purpose machinery engineering. I subsequently specialized in sustainable product design and innovation portfolio management. In my role as Head of Ecodesign, I am responsible for the global development and implementation of Ecodesign standards and tools across the Körber Group. This includes building scalable frameworks, delivering global training programs, and fostering international knowledge-sharing formats to embed sustainability into product innovation worldwide.

Experience

  • Körber (Full-time · 1 yr 8 mos)
    • Head of Ecodesign
      Nov 2025 - Present · 8 mos

      Group-wide leadership and advancement of Ecodesign, Circular Economy, and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) - Steering and advancing standards, methods, and tools for Ecodesign, Life Cycle Assessment, and Circular Economy - Leading a community of Ecodesign experts across all Business Areas and Business Units - Initiating and managing innovation programs to decarbonize our machinery portfolio, supporting the climate goal of Net-zero Scope 3 by 2040 - Guide the E5 Circular Economy area of the ESRS-compliant sustainability report and direct all measures to ensure compliance

    • Manager Ecodesign and Circular Economy
      Nov 2024 - Oct 2025 · 1 yr

      • Development and implementation of the Group strategy for Ecodesign, Life Cycle Assessment and Circular Economy • Leadership and coordination of interdisciplinary teams in the Center of Excellence for implementation of the Ecodesign guideline and Life Cycle Assessment standard • Analysis and evaluation of the product portfolio from an economic, technical and ecological point of view and derivation of suitable measures to increase resource efficiency, energy efficiency and market differentiation of the products • Monitoring and evaluation of relevant market and regulatory developments (EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, Life Cycle Assessment, Digital Product Passport, CSRD, EU Taxonomy, Ecovadis)

  • Member at Alliance to Zero
    Oct 2023 - Present · 2 yrs 9 mos

    * Workstream Ecodesign for Machinery * Workstream Digital Product Passport

  • Körber Pharma (Full-time · 5 yrs 11 mos)
    • Think Tank Ecodesign Moderator
      Aug 2022 - Oct 2024 · 2 yrs 3 mos

      Combining environmental, technical and economic considerations | Developing Ecodesign strategies for product development and engineering.

    • Project Engineer Design Department
      Dec 2018 - Jul 2022 · 3 yrs 8 mos

  • Mechanical Engineer at P3 Group
    Aug 2016 - Jun 2017 · 11 mos

    Engineering services for automotive and aviation companies

  • Assistent to the Department Head Sales at RENK Aktiengesellschaft
    Sep 2015 - Apr 2016 · 8 mos

    Development and implementation of database for project leads, analysis of sales activities and yearly reporting.