Environmental protection – Climate-neutral company since 2018

Environmental protection is especially important for us

The company BIOTURM GmbH has been certified as climate-neutral company since 2018. But what exactly does that mean? All emissions generated by the company which cannot be further reduced are compensated. This includes, for example, heating and electricity, business-related driving of all employees (especially ways to work), all vehicles, all business trips and printed matters.

The CO₂ emissions generated by all our activities are calculated, and a safety margin of 10 % is added (as a lump sum for small items). At the end of each year, we calculate how much CO₂ we have emitted through our business activities. In 2021, this was 82,715 kilograms of CO₂.

These 82.7 tonnes of CO₂ are compensated by supporting international climate protection projects. Each kilogram of CO₂ is compensated with a project-dependent amount in euros. This money is used in the projects to save CO₂.

We have chosen a forest protection project with sustainable Brazil nut cultivation in Tambopata (Peru) to compensate our company's CO₂ emissions. In this project, 400 local families work together to protect 300,000 hectares of primary rainforest in the Amazon region and make illegal logging of the forest unattractive. The smallholders receive micro-credits, support with marketing and transport and instructions on further processing methods (such as the production of soap and oil). Thanks to the project, they can take care of themselves and their forest.

Pictures © ClimatePartner

In order to compensate as well the CO₂ emissions generated by our products, all solid bars as well as all novelties since 2021have been completely produced in a climate-neutral way. Both the raw materials as well as the production and delivery are taken into consideration across all trade levels. As an additional plus, all bars are plastic-free and their folding boxes are made of grass cardboard (without wood or paper).

CO₂ is also emitted when using the internet. Servers and computer centres run around the clock, consuming electricity and producing heat. Server rooms thus have to be cooled which produces additional CO₂.

"A study from 2014 calculated that the internet consumed 4.6 per cent of global electricity in 2012. This would put the internet in sixth place in an international comparison of countries, behind China, the USA, the EU, India and Japan. The internet and all its associated devices thus consume more electricity than Russia, for example, and almost as much as Canada and Germany combined." (Source: quarks.de)

In order to make our website climate-neutral, we counted the clicks of all customers, employees etc. on our site, including of course the visits of search engine spiders or bots. This resulted in CO₂ emissions of nearly 791 kilograms in 2021. We also compensated these emissions by means of the project in Peru.