Dr. Thomas Schäfer

Thomas Schäfer led bluesign Academy from 2007 to 2023, and was Managing Director of bluesign technologies germany gmbh over the same period. He returned to bluesign in an advisory role in 2026.

Before joining bluesign, he spent eight years at EnviroTex GmbH and at the German Institutes of Textile and Fibre Research in Denkendorf, working on environmental protection in textile production, EHS audits, ceramic ultrafiltration membranes, and nanofiltration of textile effluents.

His published work covers chemical management along the textile supply chain, wastewater treatment and recycling in textile finishing, and emissions from finishing operations. He co-authored Best Available Techniques in Textile Industry for the German Federal Environment Agency (2003) and revised the OECD Emission Scenario Document on the Textile Finishing Industry (2004). His chapter “Input Oriented Chemicals Management Along the Textile Supply Chain” appears in Sustainable Textile and Fashion Value Chains (Springer Nature, 2020).

He held lecturing positions at TU Chemnitz from 2021 to 2024 and at the University of Applied Sciences Hof/Münchberg from 2022 to 2025.

He holds a doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) from the Institute of Textile Chemistry at the University of Stuttgart, awarded in 1991, and a diploma in chemistry from the same institute, awarded in 1988.

Dr. rer. nat., University of Stuttgart, 1991
Dipl. Chem., University of Stuttgart, 1988