Kubikfoto and the carbon footprint. What we do, how and why.

Sustainable

To everyone who knows us, this is probably clear: Our whole company philosophy is based on fairness and sustainability and actually we do all this just to save the world. And a little bit, of course, because it's fun ;)

Climate neutral?

Do we really work climate neutral? Of course, this all has to be weighed in balance. What would we do if we didn't do what we do? And would that then be better or worse for the climate and biodiversity? That would probably become a full book, *1 rather than a section on our website. We believe we operate in a carbon-neutral way. Our most important goal is that our work has a positive effect on nature, biodiversity and ultimately the habitability of our little earth.

What exactly?

And what exactly are we doing for species conservation and the climate? In total, our Kubikfoto activities release about 90 tons of CO2 per year.
These 90 tons include the following:

Our unavoidable air travel CO2 footprint is not included in the 90 tons. We compensate this by making offsetting payments to Atmosfair *2. Unfortunately, we rarely use buses and trains, which is still too complicated for our productions.

For the compensation of our CO2 tons we use different ways.
The most important from our point of view is the avoidance of C02 (and of course the preservation of biodiversity and species - but fortunately we do not destroy them directly with our work). Very much potential for savings has the daily way to work.
We have decided to spend a good ⅓ of the working time in home office (even without Corona). We have already very early (2011), converted part of our company vehicles to E-mobiles and will be no later than 2023 only battery charged on the road. Unfortunately, that's not quite true, a diesel van will probably accompany us on the productions for even longer *3. We actually chose our company headquarters in 2015 in the middle of where our employees live and easily accessible by public transport. Due to a very low fluctuation, this still fits ;)
The restoration or the reconstruction of our "Tollhaus" ( actually "Zollhaus" - a more than 350 years old half-timbered house, which at that time exactly marked the border between Bremen and Lower Saxony), was done with sustainable building materials*4.
We offer all employees a job bike*5.
We always take it upon ourselves to cook regional and vegetarian*6 for everyone at lunchtime (has already worked 2x, many THANKS to Steffen and Frank).

With this approach, we have reduced our CO2 emissions from the above-mentioned 90 tons, to about 20 tons/year, which corresponds to a free purchase sum at, for example, Atmosfair of 460 €. Free buying is stupid (even if we do it partly), so we have to change something.

We have just build a solar system with storage on our venerable house, in combination with EVs (we already have), an e-support for the heating (we still need, but it's not up to us, I swear, try to get craftsmen and material;) and a feed-in of the excess energy into the grid (as described above, we are only 3 days a week on site), we are purely mathematical climate neutral, actually we even have a slightly positive CO2 handprint.
Somehow, though, it still feels like a nice calculation. How can you be CO2 positive if you don't protect forests, plant trees or at least actively protect nature?

Certainly a good and important contribution is to support various NGOs.
We do that, too, of course. Occasionally with financial means, often with real heart and soul and without the intention of profit in joint web projects.
That already feels much better.
The idea of doing something in the real world in addition to sustainable projects in virtual reality has been hovering over our heads for a while.
Around our Tollhaus, everything is herb and turnip or flower meadow.
In 2020 we started a first, small but fine and above all our own nature conservation project and snatched a barn from a farmer friend that had been cleared for demolition, along with some land. Now the barn is ready for its newest citizens: wildflowers and herb areas, bats, owls, insects and spiders.
The roof of the barn is currently getting a 4.5 KWp solar system + storage, which will save another 3 tons of CO2.
Since the project was also fun, we already have another, now really big area in mind, which we would like to renaturalize;)

CONCLUSION:

(quite private conclusion from the author, in this case from me, Holger).
Only for the research, where you leave your footprint everywhere and in which gigantic sizes, this menu item was already worthwhile, at least for me;)
One always talks about "so-and-so tons here, so-and-so tons there...",these are TONS!
Our little store throws (has thrown) over 10 TONS of CO2 into the air.
That's 10 Fiat 500's. You have to imagine that.
You talk about it, as if that would be peanuts. But unfortunately these are not peanuts, these are tons - crazy.
It gets even crazier when you calculate it in terms of people.
On average, a person in Germany causes 10,000kg of CO2 per year. The average weight (that is, what we weigh as humans) is 75 kg (mix of women and men and others). So we spread 133 times our own weight of CO2 into the atmosphere every year? That must be a calculation error for me...

Unser Eigenverbrauch liegt trotz 4 E-Fahrzeugen bei unter 48% unserer 14,49 KPV-Anlage (insgesamt kompensiert eine solche Anlage laut Umweltbundesamt rund 9 Tonnen CO2 im Jahr).

Renault Twizy, BJ 2013, 45.009 km (hier mit den optionalen Türen und dem noch optionalem “Dachträger”).

Opel Ampera, BJ 2014 140.456km (vor dem Kubikfoto-Denkmal)

Tesla Model 3 BJ 2021 2.345 KM / Tom, BJ 1987, 2.435km (abgelesen)

Das E-Lastenrad ist eigentlich für den Transport von Equipment bei schönem Wetter gedacht, unserer Umoyo gefällt das aber auch;)

14,49 kWp + 10,2 kWh-Speichersystem (hier noch im Bau und ohne grün auf den kleinen Dachflächen)

Begrünung der Dachflächen

Auf allen Dachflächen die flach genug sind kommen Kräuterwiesen drauf, allerdings ist die extreme Trockenheit gerade nicht so lustig…

Scheune

Ich glaube, der Landwirt hat ein gutes Geschäft gemacht…

...schon fast fertig

*1 The book

...nobody would read my book, but these two about the topic are great in my opninionl:
ABOUT LIFE by Dirk Steffens and Fritzs Habekuss
The best book on this topic that i have ever read:
Deutschland 2050 by Nick Reimer andF Torlaf Staud
Rethinking our world by Maja Göpel
And, a sad firecracker, “if we save the oceans, we save the world” by Heike Vesper
AND of course the book on how to cope with the whole climate.... written by no less than Thorsten's daughters:
KLIMA ANGST by Amelie and Frederike Schomburg

*2 Compensation

...is of course only a stopgap solution, nevertheless, if all passengers would compensate their flights, you could probably buy all remaining rainforests with the money and protect them sustainably (?). At the moment less than 1% are compensated (the compensation for a flight e.g. to Mallorca and back costs only approx. 25€) ...
https://www.geo.de/natur/nachhaltigkeit/21475-rtkl-flugverkehr-massentrend-co2-kompensation-so-ernuechternd-sind-die
In general you can compensate everything, if there is no other way: https://www.atmosfair.de/

*3 Electronic vehicles

...are not better than combustion engines!? Yes and no and also that would fill a book;). From my point of view the crucial points are: Individual transport must become superfluous for the general public.
E-SUV's with 500 KW with full promotion do not solve problems but create new ones. We "refuel" our cars, if possible, only during the day (there is partly electricity in abundance) and only via the normal power plug / normal power connection, so everything that can also be generated genuinely via the solar system (yes, only in full sun). Much more and perhaps also somewhat more luridly to the topic, you find here here.

For those who are interested, here are a few experiences we made with e-mobility. Batteries last forever, our Twizy from 2013 and the Ampera from 2014 still have the same capacity as on the first day (and I guarantee, both have been hard-pressed and barely maintained). A few more key data about the vehicles:

Twizy, the

Our Twizy has a range of about 65km on the highway and up to 90km in the city (in winter it is about 10-15% less).
On 100 km it consumes under full load about 7 kw or 2,17€ green electricity.
For comparison, a commercial SUV hybrid - such as the X3 - consumes around 32 kWh per 100km/ 9.92€ well 4 times that when driven properly (highway over 130)!
The Twizy is an almost perfect commuting vehicle, but a few small things could be improved:
Real doors which protect against weather.
A seat heater or a very, very small warm air blower for the feet (in winter).
Maybe a comfortable driver's seat and for people with back problems a chassis that makes sense beyond the kart track. The brakes could be slightly larger dimensioned, only so 2, 3 cm then you would not have to feel 3 times a year to change the pads (but may well be due to my driving).
The Twizy was with almost 10,000 € really expensive. I think the production value is less than a week's shopping at REWE. :)

Ampera, the

We've also have this since 2013 and again, the battery is still fresh, as it was on day one.
The Ampera has a "Range Extender", a gasoline-powered aggregate, which generates electricity for the drive when the battery is empty.
The disadvantage is that there is not enough space for batteries and the range is just enough for commuting (50km with careful driving).
Advantage, you can also drive to Munich and back with it.
The consumption is 17 kWh (average of the last 100tkm) electric and about 7.3 l pure with gasoline.
Averaged over the entire runtime, it has a consumption of 4.2l gasoline/100km. 90% of the routes (the ampera was used fully loaded so 3-4 people + equipment).
The Ampera drives quite pleasantly, seats and general driving comfort is good to very good, only the heating is always a few degrees off and there are way too many buttons.
The Ampera cost 49,000 € at the time, but we had participated in this "mobility thing" for companies and only paid half and then had to pay again the other half as own use;)

Tesla, the

Everything positive you hear about the car is true, everything negative is fictitious. At least with ours.
I don't like Elon Musk, he is completely out of touch with reality and has no interest in improving the world with his ideas (although he could).
But his cars are so far ahead of the competition that I imagine he has contact with aliens and they gave him the blueprints for it.
The Tesla goes off like a hell!
The range in combination with the charging offers, the charging speeds and the very simple charging process make every combustion car obsolete.
If you kick it right :-), it also goes over 20 kWh, but you won't last long, I tried it ;). If you are normal to brisk on the road, you end up at around 17 kWh, if you want, also well below (Tom has an average of 15 kWh on the last 3,000 vacation highway km).
The entire operation really deserves the name "smart". Take a seat and go, everything explains itself and if not, you just watch Netflix.
The Tesla has cost, including special equipment (hitch and so) 41,000 €, 6,000 € came directly 2 weeks after the purchase in subsidies back.
We buy the EVs, to lease Evs
s and then exchange them for a new one after 3 years is an ecological super disaster!
Then you can rather drive an old Dodge RAM without a catalytic converter, so you are more sustainable on the road!
Also economically leasing with promotion is almost a crime against society. Getting every 2-3 years 6,000 € from the government and then throwing it to car companies… who has only thought this up ...
Privately I switched from Moto-X-burner also on e-crosser, also here there is no reason more for burners, it`s nothing more fun to go through the mud with a 45KG Sur-Ron.

Fiat 500, the

Brand new in our E-family is a Fiat 500 as a full electric car. It was supposed to be an E-Smart, but it's not really capable of anything, except being small and expensive and still completely sold out (sorry Mercedes, sit F). Small and expensive is the Fiat also, but at least you can also go to Bremerhaven and back without 3-4 times recharging(@Mercedes, how can you screw up an electric car as the E-Smart?).
Since it's brand new, I can't report anything else about the Fiat.

*4 Building material and green roofs.

...the roof we have is insulated with wood insulation boards, the gables and other walls are insulated with jute mats (a waste product from the cocoa order of Ritter-Sport) and hemp mats, a waste product from marijuana consumption....the false ceilings are also insulated with wood wool/fibers. All insulation materials can be processed on the one hand much more relaxed (no itching / coughing...), are fully sustainable, some even regional and create a very good indoor climate, because they can absorb and release moisture, unlike mineral wool. Especially for an old building this is super important. Also the disposal of leftovers or during deconstruction is not a problem, unlike mineral wool. We sourced our insulation material from various suppliers in the region.

Green roofs

Actually, every available surface MUST be green, every garden maximally diverse, and paved surfaces reduced to the absolute minimum. If you look here with us over the roofs of the garages in our neighborhood, which potential there is, in order to bind CO2 and to create kinds a habitat, completely without having to do without something. On the contrary, green roofs last much longer and the climate under and around them is much better (i.e. insulation downwards and cooling outwards on hot days). Such green roofs are available as ready-made systems, which you simply roll out and that’s it. (if in doubt, please consult the nearest roofer). This is what we have, simply because I can not assess whether the surrounding trees pure herbs / flowering areas allow this in the long term (Sedum is for insects only half as good) https://www.xeroflor.de/dachbegruenung/sedum-gras-kraeuter-dach-100/
Obtained via Inter-Roof (because around the corner) http://www.inter-dach.de/

Further info to the roof greening: https://www.nabu.de/umwelt-und-ressourcen/oekologisch-leben/balkon-und-garten/grundlagen/dach-wand/00571.html

One can also be subsidized, goes up to 50%: https://www.oekologisch-bauen.info/baustoffe/dach/foerderung-dachbegruenung.html

https://www.energie-fachberater.de/dach/dacheindeckung/dachbegruenung/kfw-foerderung-fuer-die-dachbegruenung.php

*5 Job bike

...This is one great idea of our government. You go, choose any bike and then pay that from your GROSS SALARY. Concretely, this can mean up to 40% savings. If the employer still puts its "allowance" on top, it goes down to -60% (after expiration you buy the bike then of course for 10% out). https://www.bikeleasing.de/ For example we already leased a E-Cargo by Bullit, very cool at least with beautiful weather also for small productions in the closer environment and the weekly purchase. It is a genuine alternative to a car.

*6 Vegan cooking together

Actually I think there is a lot of potential in the way we eat in terms of CO2 and justice.
When you travel and eat a lot, you get the impression that the richer a nation is, the less they care about their food!?
If you have a "normal" dinner on a mini-farm in Vietnam, somewhere in the Mekong Delta, the food is better than anything you get offered here in a *-restaurant.
The meal is celebrated, it is the center of the day. Here it is more a disturbing time eater, quickly stuffing something in ... But we "rich" could spend a lot of money and time for the food.
So, we get our food exclusively regional and seasonal and one of us cooks for the rest.
Nah, unfortunately only a dream, we all go one after the other to REWE and buy something shrink-wrapped in plastic....there is still potential.

*7 Renaturation³

...the first project is an old barn that was to be demolished to enlarge the field.
The barn has now a new, partly green roof, which was furnished inside as an owl and bat house and by an open, double-walled boarding with untreated, raw wood a gigantic insect hotel was built - more or less a plate building for insects. Around the barn we were able to get some land, where we have created small ponds, a hedge and wildflower meadow.

For another project we are in negotiation with some farmers to buy/lease strips of land along a stream that was straightened in the 1960s and to let the stream meander again. Since there are mainly bureaucratic hurdles (hard to believe but true, the authorities are still living in the 80s...), this will take some time.

* calculate

I apologize for any mistakes in the naming/calculations/extrapolations, feel free to send me an email with corrections/suggestions.