On the way to a more climate-friendly everyday life: dm-drogerie markt is the first company to set itself the goal of developing environmentally neutral products. In cooperation with HeimatERBE, the environmental costs that arise during the product life cycle and cannot be avoided are compensated for. To this end, dm invests the costs one-to-one in HeimatERBE projects. More about dm’s environmentally neutral products.
In a large-scale pilot project, three areas were acquired that had been thrown out of ecological balance by industry and mining. They are being restored to their natural state in accordance with the HeimatERBE principle.
Location: Herten, Recklinghausen
Size: 8.2 ha
History: Ewald coalmine ventilation shaft; sunk in 1920; end of operation at the end of the 1990s.
Current use: construction site facility for the redesign of Resser Bach (Emscher renaturation); construction expected to end Oct. 2022
Work & restoration goals:
– Deconstruction of remaining buildings and sealing, comprehensive debris removal
– Preservation and optimization of near-natural forest types, especially old-growth beech-oak forests (up to 160 years)
– Conversion of afforested stands into native forest communities
– Preservation and optimization of a central, preferably nutrient-poor, open land area with accumulated moisture
– Creation of flower-rich borders (from perennials and wild fruits)
– Initiation of temporary waters
Location: Ahlen, Warendorf
Size: 73.9 ha
History: slag heap of the Westfalen coalmine (east slag heap), end of operation in 2000
Current use: predominantly recultivated, forestry
Work & renaturation goals:
– Dismantling of any still-existing sealing, comprehensive debris removal
– Review of the afforested stands with regard to proximity to natural habitats and climate resilience
– Careful conversion to more natural forest communities
– Replanting of climate-resistant species
– Preservation and development of a species-rich, dry-warm, semi-open landscape on the plateaus and south-facing slopes
– Preservation and development of a low-nutrient, moist to swampy open land area at the southwestern foot of the heap
– Planting hedges and bushes
Location: Luenen, Unna
Size: 10.1 ha
History: ventilation shaft of the Kurl coalmine; sunk in 1962. End of operation in 1995.
Current use: coal mine gas plant
Restoration goals:
– Unsealing, comprehensive removal of waste
– Cautious conversion of afforested stands on the embankments into more natural forest communities
– Development of a species-rich and small-structured, semi-open landscape
– Creation of special gravelly and stony sites – Initiation of temporary waters
– Creation of flower-rich borders (from perennials and wild fruits)
