As an architect and urban planner with a Ph.D. in Public and International Affairs Margrit Kennedy was in charge of ecology and energy research in the preparatory group for the International Building Exhibition Berlin 1987. Between 1991 and 2002 she taught as the first professor for “Resource Saving Building Technology“ in Germany and the first woman professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Hanover. Her interest in ecological building and planning led her to the discovery that within the present money system it is virtually impossible to reconcile ecology and economy on the scale required. As a result of this discovery she wrote two books. The first: Interest and Inflation Free Money – Creating an exchange medium that works for everybody and protects the earth was published in 1987 and translated into over twenty languages. The second: Regionalwährungen – Neue Wege zu nachhaltigem Wachstum ( Regional Currencies – New paths towards sustainable growth ) together with Bernard Lietaer was published In 2004. The main thrust of her present work is the implementation of practical examples of complementary currencies in fifty regions of Germany and Austria.
