A look into the volunteering platform vostel.de’s CO2 offset
At vostel.de, we have long been working on ways to fulfil our climate responsibility as a social enterprise and minimise our emissions. The parts of our CO2 footprint that cannot be avoided are offset via ForTomorrow. We are also a member of the Bundesverband Nachhaltiger Wirtschaft e.V. (German Association for Sustainable Business). With this article, we want to give you a little insight into our endeavours.
Together with countless other companies, we have been members of the Bundesverband Nachhaltiger Wirtschaft e.V. since 2020 and thus support an important voice for ecologically orientated business. In projects relating to the circular economy, transformation, sustainable digitalisation and much more, the association provides important impulses for companies and political bodies. For a future-oriented and sustainable economy of tomorrow, of which we are very happy to be a part.
Our carbon footprint
Our day-to-day work inevitably generates CO2 emissions. To find out how high they are, in which areas they occur and how much CO2 needs to be offset, we took a close look at them. To this end, we have calculated our consumption using emission factors from sources including the Federal Environment Agency, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, and product and manufacturer information.
The result: In 2023, with 11 employees, we consumed around 5.7 tonnes of CO2 (including a safety surcharge). Electricity and heating in the office account for the largest share, followed by our commutes, material consumption in the office, digital emissions and business travel:
With our emissions of 5.7 tonnes of CO2, we as a company as a whole are therefore well below the CO2 emissions per person in Germany, which according to Statista amounted to around 7,16 tonnes of CO2 in 2023.
Our CO2 compensation
To offset our emissions, we have been using the offsetting offer from the non-profit organisation ForTomorrow.eu since 2021. Here, we offset our annual CO2 emissions to balance our ecological footprint.
The reason why we chose ForTomorrow.eu is that, on the one hand, they reforest sustainable – and protected by the German Federal Forest Act – mixed forests in Germany that remove carbon dioxide from the air where it is produced. On the other hand, the platform buys up CO2 emission rights in order to withdraw them from the European market and thus reduce new CO2 emissions. A clever approach that we are happy to support.
We are pleased to do our small part to contribute to more sustainability and climate protection. At the same time, however, we also know that a compensation payment alone is not enough. For this reason, we will continue to look for ways to minimise our carbon footprint in the future.
And we hope to inspire other people, companies and organisations to act in a more sustainable and climate-friendly way.
Your Team from vostel.de
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