{"id":1790,"date":"2024-11-25T15:19:46","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T15:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hinterlandofthings.com\/?p=1790"},"modified":"2024-11-25T15:22:09","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T15:22:09","slug":"beyond-greenwashing-climate-protection-needs-diverse-approaches-at-all-levels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hinterlandofthings.com\/en\/2024\/11\/25\/beyond-greenwashing-climate-protection-needs-diverse-approaches-at-all-levels\/","title":{"rendered":"BEYOND GREENWASHING: CLIMATE PROTECTION NEEDS DIVERSE APPROACHES AT ALL LEVELS"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Beyond greenwashing: climate protection needs diverse approaches at all levels<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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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 \u201cClimate Tech\u201d. In the Bielefeld City Hall, founders of climate technologies, climate activists and impact investors came together to present new approaches from different fields.<\/em><\/p>

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 \u2013 climate change \u2013 cannot be ignored.<\/p>

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.<\/p>

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 \u2013 solutions must be sought in all areas.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Back to the roots: climate solutions from nature<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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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 B\u00f6sel. With his organization Gut & B\u00f6sel, the farmer, climate activist and former investment banker wants to initiate an agricultural revolution based on ancient methods \u2013 away from monoculture and towards a natural, healthy state of the soil.<\/p>

\u201cSoil is the key to many of our problems,\u201d says B\u00f6sel. \u201cAnd farmers are our best allies in the fight against climate change.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>

Benedikt B\u00f6sel, farmer & CEO Gut & B\u00f6sel<\/cite><\/b><\/p>

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. \u201cThe focus should not be on the tonnage of yields, but on the entire ecosystem,\u201d B\u00f6sel said. With multifunctional land use, it is possible to harvest several times a year.<\/p>

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 \u2018living lab\u2019 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 B\u00f6sel.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Technology and nature don't have to be opposites.<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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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.<\/p>

Companies can purchase CO2 certificates from farmers and thus offset their emissions.
\u201cWe provide access to financing and knowledge: farmers are paid per ton of CO2 stored or reduced,\u201d 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.<\/p>

Trutz von der Trenck, co-founder of the digital compensation marketplace for nature projects green account, sees it similarly: \u201cWe as humans have to give nature more space,\u201d 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 \u2013 by creating a high-quality biotope on the outskirts of Bielefeld the size of the event site.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Closing the circle: solutions from industry, for industry<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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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 Pannenb\u00e4cker, 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. \u201cMore efficient markets must be created\u201d to reduce costs and conserve resources.<\/p>

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 \u201cend-to-end circular economy\u201d.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Corporate Responsibility: Solutions from politics and technology<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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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.<\/p>

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 \u2013 in particular, the automation of processes through AI.<\/p>

\u201cOur entire energy system is currently in transition. We are looking at things that connect small decentralized energy systems and organize supply and demand,\u201d 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.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Utilizing synergies to protect the environment<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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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 \u2013 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.<\/p>

In the words of Michael Fritz, activist and co-founder of the organization Viva con Agua de Sankt Pauli e.V., the question is: \u201cWe actually have all the possibilities to change the world, but we are not doing it. Why not?!\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 \u201cClimate Tech\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[10,9],"class_list":["post-1790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hinterland-of-things","tag-conference","tag-hinterland"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hinterlandofthings.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hinterlandofthings.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hinterlandofthings.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hinterlandofthings.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hinterlandofthings.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1790"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hinterlandofthings.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1798,"href":"https:\/\/hinterlandofthings.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1790\/revisions\/1798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hinterlandofthings.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hinterlandofthings.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hinterlandofthings.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hinterlandofthings.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}