Umweltschutz - Klimaneutral seit 2018
Environmental protection concerns us all - especially us as a natural cosmetics company, of course.
The company BIOTURM GmbH has been climate neutral since 2018. But what exactly does that mean? All emissions that are generated by the company and cannot be further reduced are offset. This includes, for example, heating and electricity, business-related travel by all employees (especially commuting), the entire vehicle fleet, all business trips and printed matter.
This involves calculating the CO2 emissions generated by all our activities. A safety margin of 10 percent is then added to this figure to account for small amounts. At the end of each year, the bottom line is how much CO2 we have emitted as a result of our business activities. In 2019, this was 79,600 kilograms of CO2.
These 79.6 tons of CO2 are then offset by climate protection projects around the world. Each kilogram of CO2 is compensated with a project-dependent amount in euros. This money is then used in the projects to save CO2.
To offset our operational CO2 emissions, we chose a clean drinking water project in Kenya. Contaminated water is responsible for more than 315,000 premature deaths per year in sub-Saharan Africa. In order to be able to use the water, it is often boiled by the simplest means - primarily with open fires using coal or wood, which on the one hand releases CO2 and on the other deforests ever larger areas for firewood. Through the project we support, the water is treated chemically (e.g. with chlorine) or mechanically (with water filters) or groundwater from wells is made accessible and is available to the population free of charge. This reduces firewood consumption and protects local forests. The project saves 45,000 tons of CO2 annually.
To also offset the CO2 emissions generated by our products, our soap-free solids (washes, shampoos, conditioners and showers), among others, are completely climate-neutral. This involves paying attention to raw materials as well as production and delivery throughout all stages of the trade. All solid pieces are also completely plastic-free and the folding box to protect the products is made of grass cardboard, in which paper is saved by using native grass. No grass is used in the process, which would be lacking as fodder livestock. The grass comes exclusively from agricultural compensation areas and is expressly not allowed to be used for feeding livestock in Germany.
To offset the unavoidable CO2 emissions, we have chosen a forest conservation project with sustainable Brazil nut cultivation in Tambopata (Peru). In this project, 400 local families work together to protect 300,000 hectares of primary rainforest in the Amazon and make illegal logging of the forest unattractive. The smallholders receive micro-credits, support for marketing and transport, and instructions on further processing methods (such as the production of soap and oil), and thanks to the project they can take care of themselves and their forest.
CO2 is also emitted when the Internet is used. Servers and data centers run around the clock, consuming electricity and producing heat. For this to work in the long term, the server rooms have to be cooled, which produces additional CO2.
"A 2014 study calculated that the Internet accounted for 4.6 percent of global electricity consumption in 2012. That would put the Internet sixth in an international comparison of countries, behind China, the U.S., 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)
To make our website climate-neutral, we therefore added up the clicks of all customers, employees, etc. on our site, including visits from search engine spiders or bots, of course. This resulted in CO2 emissions of just under 11.5 tons in 2019. We saved these emissions through a forest conservation project in Pará, Brazil. The project protects 90,000 hectares of forest, prohibits commercial logging, and creates alternative sources of income for local families, for example through trade in the açaí fruit.
Climate neutral shipping
We send all our parcels to consumers and retailers via DHL GoGreen. In this process, the greenhouse gases generated by transport to the customer are offset by climate protection projects worldwide. The resulting increased costs for shipping are of course borne by us.
You can learn more about the projects on the DHL website: https://www.dpdhl.com/en/sustainability/environment/green-product-portfolio/climate-protection-projects.html
Own organic bee colonies
In addition to the climate protection projects listed, we also support the environment locally. At our company site, we now have eight organic bee colonies that pollinate the vast Westerwald fields in the surrounding area in spring and summer and provide us with a wonderful organic honey. In addition to private consumption of the honey, we also use it as a raw material in various products (e.g. in our Cleansing foam no.125 or in our lip care).
Cultivation of organic raw materialsaround No.125 or in our lip care).
In addition to the bees, we have almost 5,000 square meters of cultivation area for organic raw materials on our company property, where we are currently testing the growth and quality of various plants and herbs, such as sunflowers and lavender. In the long term, our goal is to grow raw materials here in the Westerwald that meet our quality standards. The raw materials should then of course also be used in our products.
