After Bübchen switched its iconic blue bottles to 100% recycled plastic at the beginning of the year, the company is now taking another major step in terms of sustainability: The Bübchen factory in Soest is fully offsetting its CO2 emissions and supporting a certified climate protection project in India.
As one of the first companies in the baby and child care sector, Bübchen has been producing its products in a climate-neutral way since this year. Together with the experts at ClimatePartner, Bübchen calculated all CO2 emissions at its production site in Soest. All emissions are taken into account, from employee travel to electricity and water consumption. At the end of last year, Bübchen had already begun reducing emissions by using green electricity and improving energy efficiency in production. This also includes switching its bottles* to 100% recycled plastic.
"The climate neutrality of our plant in North Rhine-Westphalia is a major building block in further implementing our sustainability mission as a pioneer in the field of baby and child care," says Bübchen CEO, Martin Kemper. "As we want to continuously expand our commitment to avoiding and reducing CO2 in the future, we are already working on further
Measures."
THE BÜBCHEN CLIMATE PROTECTION PROJECT IN INDIA
Since the beginning of 2021, Bübchen has been offsetting all CO2 emissions that the company cannot (yet) reduce with a certified climate protection project – the construction of biogas plants in Kerala, a state in southwest India. Where households, communities, and institutions previously used firewood and sourced their electricity from the local grid, installed biogas plants now generate clean energy from organic waste on site.
The biogas produced provides local people with clean energy for cooking and heating, without smoke or air pollution. Through the operation and maintenance of the plants, the project also creates long-term jobs for the local population and helps them achieve an improved standard of living.
The climate protection project supported by Bübchen meets the strict guidelines of recognized standards. It is certified according to the "Gold Standard," which was co-developed by the WWF, among others. This standard certifies that a project is ecologically sustainable and, in line with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, also improves the social situation of the local people.
BÜBCHEN CO2 COMPENSATION IN COMPARISON
Through its voluntary commitment, Bübchen offsets 1,500,000 kilograms of CO2 annually. This corresponds to the emissions volume of more than 11,500 economy flights from Berlin to Munich, 116 trips around the equator by car (equivalent to a journey of more than 4.6 million kilometers), or 1.6 million 60°C washes, which is equivalent to the annual consumption of more than 15,000 families who do laundry twice a week.
WHAT DOES CLIMATE NEUTRALITY MEAN?
The emission of greenhouse gases** such as CO2 is unavoidable in our world. However, it leads to rising global temperatures, which, among other things, leads to rising sea levels and the melting of the polar ice caps. We are all familiar with the consequences of this – climate change. To actively counteract this development, it is important to act in a climate-neutral manner. Climate neutrality means that an activity no longer has an overall negative impact on the climate. This is the case when climate-damaging greenhouse gases are completely avoided, reduced to a minimum, and/or offset through support for internationally recognized climate protection projects.
Further information can be found at: https://www.buebchen.de/mission/klimaschutz
* Bübchen is already working on the closure, label and dyes.
** The most well-known greenhouse gas is CO2/carbon dioxide. Therefore, we simply refer to CO2 emissions here. However, this also includes all other relevant greenhouse gases.