On the Go

By bike, bus or train
to work Most of the routes we drive are shorter than 3 km. Usually you don’t need a car. If you’re smart, you get fit and jump on your bike or simply walk. Those who travel 25 km a day to work and avoid driving by changing to buses or trains save around 3700 € and around 320 kg CO2 per year.

Twice as good:
e-car + green electricity Switching to e-mobility is especially good for the climate if electricity from environmentally friendly power plants is used. If you want to be climate-friendly and mobile , it’s helpful also make the energy transition at home. Ideally with your own solar power station on the roof.

Use Carsharing
If you rarely need a ride, you should switch to car sharing. Once you have registered, you can quickly rent a car at any time - without any hassles.

Cancel domestic flights
Flying causes about 5 percent of all CO2- emissions * worldwide. Already a return flight from Düsseldorf to Munich causes approx. 250 kg of CO2. The train journey takes a little longer, but at approx. 28g. it is much more climate-friendly. Coaches are also a surprisingly climate-friendly choice.

Flight unavoidable? …please with compensation
CO2 emissions can be calculated and compensated. You pay for the greenhouse gases caused by your flight. The money is invested in developing countries, e.g. in solar, hydropower or energy-saving projects, in order to save the amount of CO2 that corresponds to the emissions produced.

At home

An effective switch:
Green electricity By switching to an independent green electricity supplier, you can save around 2 tons of CO2 per year in a single-family house with 4 persons . There is hardly a simpler way to make a difference for the climate.

1°C less warm in winter
1 degree less room temperature saves up to 10% energy, 275 kg CO2 and a lot of money per year. Decreasing the temperature to 16° at night increases the quality of sleep and saves about the same amount.*

Full load, cleaned cold
Laundry becomes clean even without prewash, at 30°/40°. In summer, use a clothesline instead of a dryer. The CO2 savings potential is more than 1000 kg CO2 per year.*

Goodbye standby
Switch electrical appliances “OFF” together, the simplest way is via a switchable plug connector. In a 4-person household, you can save up to 300 kg of CO2 without any effort.*

Illumination via LEDs
LEDs require only one fifth the energy of a conventional light bulb and have a much longer lifecycle. Those who don’t switch waste their money and about 400 kg CO2 per year per household.*

Smart thermal insulation
Insulating apartments and houses properly brings a lot - depending on the type of building and the number of occupants, the savings potential is up to 3000 kg CO2 per year, per house. * The cost savings in the annual billing comes on top of that.

Investing for the climate: Eco-banks
Anyone who wants to exclude investments in climate-damaging forms of energy and companies is switching to an ecological bank. This helps to build an environmentally sensible and at the same time economically realistic economy.

Food

Less meat on the table
Try reducing your meat consumption - the relief for your wallet and for the climate is a perfect reason for a few meat-free days. If you cut back on dairy products as well, you make an extra contribution to climate protection. Every German causes on average more than 560 kg CO2 per year through meat and milk consumption. A vegetarian can halve these emissions. A vegan only emits 75 kg of CO2 per year.*

Organic, seasonal and regional
Regional and seasonal food products reduce transportation, refrigeration and unnecessary CO2 emissions. Organic agriculture uses only one third of fossil fuels - compared to conventional agriculture. For example, 100 grams of aspargus from Chile cause 1.7 kg of CO2 during transport. From the region during the asparagus season, the figure is only 60 g.

Better in the pot than in the barrel Around 13 million tons of food in Germany go into the bin every year. According to researchers, more than 40% could be avoided if each of us would buy a little less, store fruit, vegetables and bread correctly and would not throw away leftovers without hesitation. It is a pity for the food, for the money and bad for the climate. Because food production generates a lot of CO2.*

Consumption

Buy second-hand, borrow, exchange, repair
Around 40 percent of the CO2 emissions per person are attributable to private consumption. * So no matter whether it’s clothes, furniture or electrical appliances: before you buy a new product, you should ask yourself whether it’s really necessary. Can the old model be repaired after all? Do you really need the latest smartphone? Why not borrow the drill or lawnmower from your neighbor or buy it used? After all, buying used cars, rental or car sharing has been common practice for a long time.

Less is more for the climate
It is clever to consider every purchase carefully and buy only what brings lasting pleasure. “Will I still be happy about it tomorrow?” You should ask yourself this question regularly before you take home something that might just be lying around later…because the feeling of happiness after shopping usually fades away quickly - but once you’ve bought it, you should use every product for as long as possible. Exception: Large electrical appliances that consume a lot of electricity.

Reduce Energy Eaters
Anyone making new purchases of electrical appliances should pay attention to energy efficiency: The cheapest device is not always the cheapest in the long run.

Climate-killer clothing? Doesn’t have to be. Conventional production, transport and use of clothes emits enormous amounts of CO2 every year: 850 million tons. * Even for those who are not enthusiastic about Second-Hand (it clearly comes off best in the CO2 balance), there are climate-friendly alternatives:

  1. buy quality clothes, wear them longer. For every year a garment is worn longer, CO2 emissions are reduced by about 24 percent, according to Greenpeace. 2. buy basics: Full wardrobe - nothing to wear? Timeless clothing that is easily combinable helps to counter this feeling. 3. look for the abbreviation “kbA” (“controlled organic cultivation”) 4. promote fair working conditions with Fairtrade or Fair Wear. 5. focus on brands that support the “cradle to cradle” principle. 6. pay attention to seals such as “bluesign” or “Oeko-Tex Standard 100” and recycled materials.

Internet

Every click, every googling, every video or photo produces data. These consume electricity and cause a lot of CO2 worldwide.

Already, about 4% of all emissions are caused by the world wide web. By 2030, the share of global greenhouse gas emissions could rise to 8%.*

In order to reduce data consumption and therefore the CO2 footprint of our own company there are the following possibilities:

  1. Climate-friendly web hosting with real green electricity.
  2. usage of the best compression of image and video content.
    1. avoid video streaming.
  3. compensate for the remaining emissions.
  4. prioritize CO2 as a topic for your IT.
  5. Digital-Detox: Motivate your employees to switch off their smartphones more often after work….by the way it’s also beneficial for the office atmosphere :)