Ecosummit 2011 is climate neutral now. We are happy to announce that we have finalised the carbon offset of Ecosummit 2011 together with our partner and ECO11 silver sponsor ForestFinance using their carbon management service CO2OL. We calculated a carbon footprint of 190 tons CO2 emissions for ECO11 caused by 300 participants gathering in Berlin on 24-25 March 2011 (0.63 tons CO2 per person).

We paid €2.500,00 to ForestFinance (€13.16 per ton CO2) and received the CO2OL Certificate No. COB-38211/2011 that proves that our ECO11 carbon emissions are compensated for by the CO2OL Tropical Mix Reforestation climate protection project in Panama. The CO2OL Tropical Mix Reforestation project is certified by Carbon Fix Standard, Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance and Forest Stewardship Council.

Being an international conference, the mobility of the participants is the key driver of ECO11’s carbon footprint: 124 participants took the plane, 60 travelled by train, 16 drove their car and 100 locals joined from Berlin. Moreover, we selected the eco hotel Scandic Berlin as our event location and reported back in January 2011 that the Scandic received the silver medal from the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB). We minimised the use of print material relying on digital online marketing and printed only a 1-page agenda and a badge for each participant. We are also grateful that the majority of our participants joined our badge recycling programme before leaving the conference venue.

We want to thank ForestFinance and all our sponsors for their support. We are also grateful to all our speakers, partners and participants for making ECO11 so productive and exciting. Ecosummit 2012 will take place on 22-23 March 2012 in Berlin and shall be climate neutral, too.

Tags: Berlin, Carbon Compensation, Carbon Management, Carbon Offset, Climate Neutral, Climate Protection Project, CO2OL, ECO11, Ecosummit 2011, ForestFinance, Reforestation