Rising temperatures, loss of biodiversity, dwindling resources, more and more waste in the sea: the current threats to our environment are many and varied. Our solutions must be just as diverse. This was the conclusion at the Hinterland of Things Conference 2024 on the topic of “Climate Tech”. In the Bielefeld City Hall, founders of climate technologies, climate activists and impact investors came together to present new approaches from different fields.
Imagine it’s the climate crisis and nobody goes. If only it were that easy. But the effects of one of the greatest challenges of our time – climate change – cannot be ignored.
The greenhouse gases that have accumulated in the air are causing noticeable changes on our planet. On land, severe natural disasters are the result, from record floods to drought summers, with far-reaching damage for agriculture, nature and society. There are now a hundred times more microplastic particles in our waters than stars in the Milky Way.
To achieve the 2030 climate target, greenhouse gas emissions need to be reduced by up to 65 percent. Even though Germany is on track to achieve the 2030 climate target for the first time, significant improvements are still needed to find a holistic approach to environmental protection. Because there is much more at stake than just CO2 emissions, says Nina Mannheimer, co-founder and CPO of Klim, a digital platform for farmers. There is no one-size-fits-all solution – solutions must be sought in all areas.
Nature itself can help to mitigate the climate crisis. The speakers at the ClimateTech conference are convinced of this. For example, regenerative and multifunctional agriculture protects biodiversity and reduces CO2 emissions, according to speaker Benedikt Bösel. With his organization Gut & Bösel, the farmer, climate activist and former investment banker wants to initiate an agricultural revolution based on ancient methods – away from monoculture and towards a natural, healthy state of the soil.
“Soil is the key to many of our problems,” says Bösel. “And farmers are our best allies in the fight against climate change.”
Benedikt Bösel, farmer & CEO Gut & Bösel
By using methods such as crop rotation, agroforestry and minimum tillage, farmers can make the soil more fertile, sequester carbon and increase resilience to climate extremes. These approaches not only benefit the environment, but also promote the economic sustainability of agriculture. “The focus should not be on the tonnage of yields, but on the entire ecosystem,” Bösel said. With multifunctional land use, it is possible to harvest several times a year.
His farm, for example, produces around three tons per year from grain fields, fruit trees and cattle farming. In this respect, the Finck Foundation he founded is intended to serve as a ‘living lab’ in his fields, putting new research into practice. His 3,000-hectare farm south of Berlin can be seen as a model for the region, because if it is possible to establish a resilient biotope in sandy, nutrient-poor soils there, it is possible everywhere, according to Bösel.
Digital technologies such as Klim can make an important contribution here to helping agriculture move towards more environmentally friendly agricultural practices. The platform provides farmers with documentation and compensation options for their regenerative measures.
Companies can purchase CO2 certificates from farmers and thus offset their emissions.
“We provide access to financing and knowledge: farmers are paid per ton of CO2 stored or reduced,” says Mannheimer. With this, Nina Mannheimer and the climate team want to set a movement in motion that encompasses the entire supply chain. Currently, there are around 3,000 farmers registered on the platform, as well as large corporations, supermarket chains, mills and dairies working with Klim.
Trutz von der Trenck, co-founder of the digital compensation marketplace for nature projects green account, sees it similarly: “We as humans have to give nature more space,” he says. The green account platform brings companies and landowners together to trade biotopes and thus offset emissions.
This innovative approach to nature investment was implemented for the Hinterland of Things Conference in the summer of 2023 – by creating a high-quality biotope on the outskirts of Bielefeld the size of the event site.
Industry has a crucial role to play in promoting climate action. One important approach is recycling and closing gaps in the circular economy. By reusing materials and products, resources can be conserved, waste reduced and energy consumption lowered.
In the face of dwindling resources and rising production costs, it is becoming increasingly important for companies to close the loop, says Jan Pannenbäcker, co-founder of Metaloop, a global digital trader in the recycling of scrap metal. The metal industry is considered a major source of emissions, particularly in the construction industry. “More efficient markets must be created” to reduce costs and conserve resources.
In addition to recycling, reducing energy consumption is another important step. In the energy market, for example, the startup Voltfang is focusing on a technological solution that converts used batteries from electric cars into energy storage systems. This not only reduces the production costs of new batteries, but also lowers energy costs while simultaneously reducing emissions. Co-founder and CEO David Oudsandji sees the potential to develop an “end-to-end circular economy”.
It is the task of politics to hold companies more accountable and to oblige them to comply with strict environmental standards. One example of this is the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which requires publicly-traded companies to disclose detailed sustainability information from 2025. The aim of this directive is to improve transparency and comparability, thus creating a stronger incentive for sustainable action.
The CSRD ensures that companies report comprehensively on their environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices. These disclosures are increasingly important not only for large companies but also for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Impact investors who prioritize sustainable investments use these reports to make informed decisions. From an investor’s perspective, it is necessary that startups connect the technical possibilities – in particular, the automation of processes through AI.
“Our entire energy system is currently in transition. We are looking at things that connect small decentralized energy systems and organize supply and demand,” says Jan Lozek of the VC fund Future Energy Ventures.
New digital technologies can play a significant role in helping companies meet the requirements of the CSRD. Startups such as Code Gaia and TansoTech, for example, offer innovative digital platforms and software solutions designed specifically for medium-sized companies. These tools enable companies to easily and intuitively create their carbon footprints and analyze and improve their sustainability performance.
The speakers at the conference agreed on one point: the climate crisis requires decisive action and innovative solutions at all levels. Technology and nature are not contradictions in terms. Rather, today’s technical solutions can be used as catalysts to counteract the effects of the climate crisis. Regenerative agriculture, efficient recycling and forward-looking energy management are now within reach with digital technologies – they just need to be used holistically. Because in the fight for a livable future, the whole is more than the sum of its parts.
In the words of Michael Fritz, activist and co-founder of the organization Viva con Agua de Sankt Pauli e.V., the question is: “We actually have all the possibilities to change the world, but we are not doing it. Why not?!”
© 2024 Hinterland of Things
