MY ENTREPRENEURIAL RECORD ON SUSTAINABILITY

I have changed my coffee supplier. Thus, I receive coffee that was transported to Germany by sailing ship. In addition, I order through a regional roastery from Leipzig. The supplier also pays a lot of attention to Fairtrade – compliant cultivation and payment of farmers.

Moving to the coworking space part of town has allowed me to shorten my commute.

This means I can easily walk to work and avoid using public transport.

I have moved the operation of the website to a regional provider, as they run their servers on green power.

It follows that my marketing is becoming more ecological.

Since my KFZ was no longer usable, I deregistered it and use public transport for further routes. In addition, carpooling, bus and train are preferred for interregional routes. If this is not possible, I rent a car temporarily. If possible, I pay a CO2 compensation surcharge.

To make my own searches on the Internet as ecological as possible, I use another search engine on my smartphone and laptop, since it plants trees worldwide with use.

My operation of a coworking space allows me to share the printer as well as other office resources with many businesses and employees other businesses.

I was able to reduce diesel consumption, paper consumption (flip chart), and save toner.

This was made possible by the introduction of online consultations.

It is critical, however, that servers of the corresponding service providers are necessary for this purpose and thus rare earths, energy, etc. are consumed.

In 2012, I drew up my sustainability balance sheet for the first time for the past few years. This includes a self-commitment to continue in the coming years.

With the introduction of the ability to sign electronically on my own laptop, I have been able to reduce the printing of applications and contracts by 90%.

In addition, I have begun to buy non-fiction books only as PDFs, thus avoiding their paper, printing, and transportation requirements.

I have decided to use or not replace my motor vehicle even after the depreciation period. Thus, the vehicle is to be used to the end through repairs until it is unfit to drive.

Further process changes reduce paper consumption by 40%.

The elimination of the need for an in-house server results in the elimination of the production expense for replacements in the future. Additional consequence is a reduction in future electricity consumption.

A sufficiently large laptop makes it possible to dispense with an external monitor.

This saves plastic and rare earths and other necessary resources.

In addition, by optimizing processes, I have reduced paper consumption by another 50%.

By increasing the electronic transmission of contract documents, postal routes (reduction of service provider fuel consumption, including CO2 reduction) and paper requirements for mailing envelopes are significantly reduced.

Redirecting faxes to my email address eliminates the need for paper and toner. I also no longer need a fax machine, saving all the production of plastic and other components.

I walk to my office on office days. The car is only used for more distant appointments.

I have changed all illuminants to a variant with 20% savings. That is, only high-voltage halogen lights are used, as they are the most environmentally friendly in production and disposal.
Other energy-saving lamps contain toxic gases or rare earths and electronic waste.