A year earlier than planned, the Gerry Weber Group has achieved an announced sustainability goal: the climate neutrality of its own headquarters in Halle/Westphalia. This was made possible because the company has already been able to reduce the external energy procurement of the headquarters by around 30 percent since 2016 and compensates for the remaining share of emissions in cooperation with the start-up Planted.
“Climate protection means recording all emissions and then reducing them continuously and as far as possible. All unavoidable emissions can be offset by a climate protection project,” explains Patrick Kühnast, Coordinator Shared Services & PMO at Gerry Weber, who is primarily responsible for operational implementation. “Various measures have already been implemented in the past, with which a large proportion of greenhouse gases can be saved. This includes, for example, the use of geothermal energy, the switch to LEDs, various runtime optimizations and the reduction of compressed air leaks as well as raising employee awareness.” The progress made towards reducing CO2 is tracked and certified annually through appropriate external audits. The systematic reduction of the CO2 footprint began around six years ago and is being gradually pursued.
The remaining emissions are offset by purchasing carbon dioxide certificates, with which the Cologne startup Planted supports various social and energy-related projects. These projects also promote the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
For Gerry Weber, reaching this milestone is no reason to slack off in further efforts. “According to our roadmap, we will not only work on further reducing our CO2 footprint, but in the next step on achieving climate neutrality for the company throughout Germany or company-wide,” explains Angelika Schindler-Obenhaus, CEO of Gerry Weber International AG.