Beyond World Environment Day: Looking to a carbon neutral future

This month we celebrated World Environment Day. Celebrated since 1973 and led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the event has grown to be the largest global platform for environmental outreach, with millions of people from across the world engaging to protect the planet. 2022 marked 50 years since the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, widely seen as the first international meeting on the environment. This year’s theme, #OnlyOneEarth, called for collective, transformative action on a global scale to celebrate, protect and restore our planet.

However, while World Environment Day is brilliant for putting a spotlight on global issues and pressing environmental challenges, it can be daunting for businesses to know where to tread next. Morison Global member GKK PARTNERS, based in Germany, is an accountancy firm who has begun to take bold steps on this journey, working with one of their clients ClimatePartner, to achieve their goals.

ClimatePartner is a Munich-born company, with a vision of embedding climate action into corporate activity. They offer their customers climate action solutions: from carbon footprints and climate action strategies all the way to carbon neutral products with the support of international carbon offset projects. They have recently supported GKK PARTNERS in becoming carbon neutral.

We recently spoke to Markus Keller, Partner at GKK PARTNERS, and Moritz Lehmkuhl, founder of ClimatePartner, about the importance of resource-saving work and sustainability, how the collaboration between GKK PARTNERS and ClimatePartner came about, and what steps a company can take to establish sustainability in its working environment and to commit to it.

Markus initially noted that climate action can be daunting, but it doesn’t need to be. ‘Climate protection can also be practised on a small scale: For example, we have been a paperless office since 2020, we have replaced all light bulbs with efficient LED lights and switched to a regional mineral water involving a lower logistics load, as a first step. We now use tap water dispensers in our office.’ Working with their ‘successful and fast-growing client, ClimatePartner’ meant that they could take the next steps of balancing ‘the previously unavoidable with effective projects’.

He focused on the importance of involving your employees in the process, as they are an ‘important factor on your journey towards sustainability’. Looking to the future they ‘want to continue to encourage all employees and stakeholders to participate, to question all processes in terms of sustainability, and to always remain open to suggestions and ideas to implement further improvements.'

Moritz Lehmkuhl explained to us how ClimatePartner had supported the firm. They ‘implement climate protection strategies and offset CO2 emissions through climate protection projects in developing countries.' These projects ‘contribute to improving their economic, social and ecological situation. For emerging and developing countries, emissions trading is a key driver for the transfer of clean technologies and sustainable economic development.’ Transparency is also incredibly important to them, with an online tracking system guaranteeing ‘traceability in climate protection. In addition, all climate protection projects adhere to a high standard and are audited by external auditors.’

To finish our conversation, Markus highlighted that they have ‘found [themselves] on the path towards climate neutrality for years’ so it seemed like this partnership was ‘the next logical step’. As he pointed out, a firm only needs to ‘start small, every step counts’.