CO₂ Calculators Coming Soon!

We consume electricity, are mobile and heat our homes - all of which generates emissions that affect our atmosphere and pollute the climate. They can be calculated and expressed in CO₂ equivalents. Methane, for example, is another gas alongside CO₂ that is released in excessive quantities as a result of human activity. 1 g of methane has approximately 25 times more impact on the climate than 1 g of CO₂. 1 g of methane therefore equals 25 g of CO₂ equivalents.

The carbon footprint summarizes all emissions of a specific unit, e.g. a person, institution or product.

But it is not only when we actually fly by plane or buy a new cell phone that emissions are released. The construction of infrastructure, the extraction and processing of raw materials and later transportation and disposal also produce so many greenhouse gases that the climate changes and ecosystems are at risk. All emissions from this so-called life cycle of a product or activity are included in the carbon footprint.

The CO₂ footprint is calculated with the help of so-called CO₂ factors. Ideally, each product or activity has such a factor, which has been scientifically determined and indicates how many kilograms of CO₂ equivalents are emitted through the use of the product or the performance of the activity.

For example: According to a source from the Federal Environment Agency, a medium-sized car produces 0.25 kg of CO₂ over a distance of one kilometer. Based on this, your CO₂ footprint is determined using your information on the number of vehicles you have and your activities with them (kilometers driven on the way to work or school, on trips or to business appointments).

In short, each of us is given food, habitat, clean water and clear air to breathe by nature every day. It is time to say thank you for this by allowing it to exist and recover. This is how we take responsibility, stop climate change and save life on our planet.

The carbon footprintgives us figures to make our impact on the atmosphere tangible. By protecting the correspondingly large area of intact nature, we offset our emissions by preventing the release of huge amounts of CO₂, maintaining important functions of forests for the climate and preserving habitats and biodiversity.

In the global community, awareness and the need for action have long been at the top of the agenda. The 13th of the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) therefore stipulates that urgent action must be taken to combat climate change and its impacts. Goal #15 also states that terrestrial ecosystems must be urgently protected and their beneficial effects preserved. With our calculator and the corresponding compensation, you therefore fulfill two of the UN Sustainable Development Goals at once.

The long explanation:

As inhabitants of the Earth, each of us consumes natural resources every day, leaving our mark on the planet: we purchase electricity, buy technology, are mobile and heat - all of which produce emissions that affect our atmosphere. In recent years, we have created so many emissions and protected so little nature that the climate is changing and ecosystems and life on our planet are threatened. Increasing weather extremes such as floods and droughts and the rapid extinction of species show this.

But we have the best ally - nature, which gives us resources and habitat, clean water and clear air to breathe every day. If we finally say thank you and allow it to exist and recover, we can stop climate change.

Our emissions can be calculated and expressed in CO₂ equivalents. This puts a figure on the impact of our human activity on the climate. Once we know our share, we can take responsibility for it and act to stop climate change and preserve habitats and biodiversity.

Not all emissions are avoidable. However, they can be offset by preserving intact nature, for example, because large quantities of CO₂ are stored there. By protecting it firmly and permanently, we prevent the release of stored CO₂ and at the same time preserve valuable natural areas.

Our calculator and offsetting project is about CO₂, because CO₂ is the most tangible and most accurately calculable part of our ecological footprint to date. However, we must not forget that this is only one part of the calculation and that our climate as a whole and therefore life on our planet are in danger. Global warming is just one consequence of our interventions in the ecological balance, but droughts, floods, storms and other extreme weather events are also part of climate change.

So it is not enough just to reduce CO₂ in the atmosphere. Even if we stopped burning fossil fuels, we could not stop climate change if we continue to destroy carbon-rich ecosystems and important habitats. We need a real savior of the climate and biodiversity. The best part - we already have it. And we can't afford to lose it: The forest.

Currently, 30 % of the earth's surface is forested. Standing forests have many important functions for the climate and the environment. They prevent the erosion of nutrient-rich soils. From a global perspective, trees produce the majority of the oxygen that is vital for us humans, so they secure the basis of our existence. Forests also filter particulate matter such as heavy metals, nitrogen oxides and soot particles from industrial and car exhaust fumes from the atmosphere and clean the water in streams and rivers.

Through the constant evaporation of the vegetation and the release of aerosols by the trees, the forest itself also ensures the typically frequent precipitation. Therefore, forests are also responsible for a moist, cool microclimate and storing huge amounts of water; therefore they act as our most important buffer against extreme weather and climate change. So they really are the "green lungs" of our planet. And last but not least, they are places of peace and relaxation.

Above all, however, these forests bind more CO₂ in their biomass, soils and forest bogs than is present in the entire atmosphere. If the forest is cut down, the carbon reserves stored in it are released through the use of the wood and the rotting of the branches, leaves and roots and are released back into the atmosphere as CO₂. There, the CO₂ acts as a greenhouse gas and accelerates global warming. Biodiversity is lost and it becomes significantly drier and hotter due to the lack of tree vegetation. When carbon-rich ecosystems such as forests and moors are destroyed, they release more CO₂ than it would ever be possible to bind again in a period of time relevant to humans.

For this reason, forests, especially old primeval forests, are our most important buffer against human-induced climate change worldwide. However, 13 million hectares of forest disappear every year, an area equivalent to the size of Greece.

Without the forest, our air would be too polluted to breathe, there would not be enough reliable rain, our soils would be washed out and depleted of nutrients, our water sources would dry up, and drought and heat would plague us. That's why we think it's time to say thank you to nature for all the free services it provides us with every day and without which life would be impossible. If we want to save the climate as a whole and life on our planet, it is not enough to bind CO₂ in new plantings at some point in the future or to reduce it through innovative technologies.

We must say thank you and preserve all the remaining, intact, high-carbon ecosystems that "give us gifts" every day.