The international community has agreed that global warming must be limited to below 2 degrees Celsius in order to prevent catastrophic consequences. However, the current pledges made by individual states are only sufficient to limit warming to a maximum of 4 degrees. Closing this ambition gap will require additional and substantial commitment from businesses and citizens. We have recognized that voluntary emission reductions by companies are essential to effectively counteract climate change. That is why we have decided to neutralize our CO2 emissions and thus want to contribute to a future worth living. Because we not only want to analyse the problems, but also tackle and solve them.

The CO2 footprint is a measure of the amount of greenhouse gases (measured in CO₂ equivalents) that are directly and indirectly generated by an activity of an individual, a company, an organization or a product. It includes the resulting emissions from raw materials, production, transport, trade, use, recycling and disposal. The basic idea of the CO2 footprint or carbon footprint is therefore to create a basis on which influences on the climate can be measured, evaluated and compared. This allows necessary reduction potentials to be identified, measures to be developed and their effectiveness to be evaluated. The corporate carbon footprint is the CO2 footprint of a company and the product carbon footprint is the CO2 footprint of a product.

According to the principle of CO2 compensation described in the Kyoto Protocol, greenhouse gases that are generated in one place on earth and cannot be avoided should be saved by climate protection projects in another place. To finance these, companies purchase certificates for corresponding climate protection projects from the six available project sectors (biomass, cooking stoves, solar energy, forest protection, hydropower and wind energy). Each certificate stands for 1 tonne of CO2 saved by the respective project. There are numerous climate protection projects worldwide, most of which support renewable energy projects. The initiators of these projects receive emission credits for their commitment, which can be traded in the form of climate protection certificates. The amount is measured, for example, by comparing it with the emissions that would have resulted from the construction of a coal-fired power plant.

We have commissioned the external sustainability consultancy Fokus Zukunft to calculate our company's Footprint. The emissions balance was calculated using the official Greenhouse Gas Protocol guidelines.

Within the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, emissions are broken down into Scopes 1, 2 and 3, each of which covers different types of greenhouse gas emissions. Scope 1 includes direct emissions from own energy plants. Scope 2 covers emissions that arise indirectly in the provision of energy for the company. Scope 3 emissions are other indirect emissions that occur throughout the entire value chain.

The calculation of greenhouse gas emissions includes the seven main greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) as defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Kyoto Protocol.

Not all of the seven main greenhouse gases are equally effective. Methane, for example, is 21 times more harmful to the climate than CO2, nitrous oxide 310 times and sulfur hexafluoride even 14.000 times. In order to compare the emissions, all greenhouse gases are therefore converted to CO2. This is then referred to as CO2 equivalents.

The conversion of the collected consumption data (e.g. electricity consumption or fuel consumption) is carried out using emission factors, which indicate the emissions per unit (e.g. per kilowatt hour of electricity or litre of petrol). The emission factors come mainly from DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), but also from the GEMIS database (Global Emissions Model of Integrated Systems, IINAS) and the Ecoinvent database and are updated regularly.

The initiators of the climate protection projects - predominantly renewable energy projects - receive emission credits for their commitment, which can be traded in the form of climate protection certificates. The amount of emission compensation is measured, for example, by comparing it with the emissions that would have resulted from the construction of a coal-fired power plant instead of generating renewable electricity.

The climate protection projects we purchase are each accredited, approved and controlled according to one of the three internationally recognised certification standards - VCS (Verified Carbon Standard), UN CER (Certified Emission Reduction of the United Nations) or the Gold Standard developed by WWF. The validation of the project results, in terms of the CO2 savings achieved, is certified by independent testing bodies such as TÜV.

The acquired number of CO2 certificates was decommissioned. This is significant in that this decommissioning is a prerequisite for the design and marketing of CO2-neutral companies and/or products. Without decommissioning, a CO2 certificate could possibly continue to be traded on the voluntary market, which would not result in any additional emission reduction.

Climate change is global, so it does not matter where CO2 emissions are emitted or saved, in the end the sum of greenhouse gases is decisive. In Germany the reduction or compensation of CO2 is very expensive, in emerging and developing countries, however, the compensation is cheaper. The Kyoto Protocol, which is binding under international law, therefore stipulates that so-called climate protection projects that avoid or store greenhouse gas emissions should take place where they are most economical. Accordingly, there are many projects in newly industrializing and developing countries, as the potential for savings through new technologies is still very high there and these can be used much more cost-effectively. In addition, the conditions for renewable energy plants (sun, wind, water and biomass) are often much more advantageous there. Furthermore, the projects in emerging and developing countries contribute to the improvement of the economic, social and ecological situation and support the realization of the sustainability goals of the United Nations. For emerging and developing countries, emissions trading is a key driver for the transfer of clean technologies and sustainable economic development.