HeimatERBE is the world's first environmentally neutral company

Many modern companies are now looking for ways to actively offset their environmentally negative effects and consequences of their business activities. HeimatERBE supports by determining the environmental costs and implementing appropriate compensation measures. For this purpose, the company acquires fallow land, enhances it to the maximum in terms of the environment and returns it to nature. HeimatERBE has now had its own ecological footprint determined by greenzero.me GmbH: In 2021, HeimatERBE GmbH incurred environmental costs of 10,860€. The company compensates the incurred environmental costs on its own areas. This makes us the first environmentally neutral company in the world and sends a clear signal to secure our environment. 

A maximum reduction of resource consumption and compensation of the unavoidable are necessary efforts to avoid leaving ecological debts to future generations. This is the goal of HeimatERBE. To this end, the company gives nature an economic value and thus creates a central prerequisite for counteracting the growing deficit of ecosystem services worldwide. This form of ecological enhancement is the “environmental value” that can compensate for environmental costs.

It is based on the scientific approach of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA is a robust quantitative tool and standardized by ISO 14040/14044, typically used for products, but it is also applicable at the organizational level (called Organizational LCA, O-LCA; 140721). As a multi-impact approach, an LCA generally considers multiple environmental impacts caused over the entire life cycle of an object of study, i.e. it covers more than just the impact of CO2, for example also eutrophication and acidification. This is crucial to get closer to sustainable solutions.

Today, LCA is considered the most comprehensive method for calculating environmental impacts. O-LCA uses a life-cycle perspective to capture and assess the inputs, outputs, and potential environmental impacts of activities associated with a business. Our analysis aimed to capture the environmental impacts of all HeimatERBE activities from calendar year 2021. For this purpose, an organizational life cycle assessment was conducted in accordance with ISO 14072.

The O-LCA covers all existing activities, e.g. business trips, area works and energy consumption. These effects are converted into environmental costs (€) using the “Environmental Prices” method of CE Delft, which is recognized by the EU Commission. In 2021, HeimatERBE GmbH incurred environmental costs in the amount of 10,860€. The company compensates these 1-to-1 through the environmental value. The compensation takes place on the own areas. For this purpose, experts focus on biodiversity – the diversity of habitats, biotopes, species and landscape elements on these areas must be optimally designed in terms of nature conservation. In addition, an ongoing monitoring process must ensure that the desired development takes place on the area, i.e. that various species settle and accept the areas.

This sum thus reduces the potential environmental value of HeimatERBE GmbH that can be sold and is, of course, not included in the basis of the environmental value, the full cost calculation. We take responsibility for our induced negative environmental impacts.

Of course, this will henceforth be an annual analysis for us in order to further develop ourselves as an ecological organization.