"CO2-neutral" often not honest: "Climate protection must not be a marketing campaign"

Climate protection is very important.

"CO2-neutral" often not honest: "Climate protection must not be a marketing campaign"

Climate protection is very important. More and more companies want to improve their CO2 balance and thus their image, says Moritz Lehmkuhl from Climate Partner, who advises companies. Unfortunately, they could pull themselves out of the affair very quickly with a controversial but very common procedure.

A niche has become a mass market in recent years: German companies want to improve their CO2 balance as quickly as possible. Because the emission of pollutants is expensive and the word "climate neutral" looks good on the website.

The Munich-based company Climate Partner is benefiting from this trend, more than 5,000 customers seek advice from the provider - and if successful, they also advertise with a corresponding label. "The willingness of companies to really change things up is there," says Moritz Lehmkuhl, boss and founder of Climate Partner, in the podcast "The hour zero". In view of inflation and high energy prices, demand is not increasing as strongly as in previous years, but interest is still great.

From Lehmkuhl's point of view, however, it is important that the companies are not only interested in a better public image, but really want to do something about their emissions. "We want to convince the companies that it has to go much deeper."

Retailers with many upstream supply chains would also have to look at the processes of the suppliers. Of course, hardly any company can actually reduce its own emissions to zero quickly, which is why customers often pay for compensation certificates - a common procedure in the industry, which, however, repeatedly leads to criticism: does the principle reduce the willingness to actually do something? "It can't just be a marketing campaign. The commitment has to go further and further," says Lehmkuhl.

Climate Partner promotes and develops climate protection projects in poorer countries, which can be counted towards compensation - for example in Ethiopia or Kenya. In order to be able to advance such a program, the Munich service provider needs more and more employees - there are already over 500. "We are on site for many projects. Otherwise it wouldn't work," he says.

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