The Leaders for Climate Action initiative gets it. We have to take care of our planet together, because we don’t have a second one. Therefore, around Earth Day on 22 April, its members have launched the Time for Climate Action project week from 19 to 25 April. Computop and 200 companies, mainly from the digital economy, are taking part in TFCA. During these seven days, as many people and companies as possible are to be motivated to do more for environmental and climate protection – ideally on 365 days.

The Little Prince in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s world-famous fairy tale shares some wisdom with the reader. Among other things, that while it requires a certain amount of discipline, everyone should take care of their planet after their own morning care: “It is a question of discipline. […] When one has finished one’s morning toilet, one must be equally diligent in attending to the toilet of the planet.” Written in 1943 and truer today than ever: Every day should be Earth Day!

Computop goes green

So how do you manage to implement the goal of “more environmental and climate protection” and not just think about the earth one day a year? The payment people at Computop also asked themselves this question when they became part of Leaders for Climate Action last year and introduced climate-neutral payments.

The project “Clean Cookstoves in Peru” offers a good answer to this. The initiative replaces climate-polluting and inefficient open fireplaces with cooking stoves. Both people and nature benefit from this: among other things, the cooking stoves ensure that less CO₂ is emitted during heating and cooking, less firewood needs to be collected and stoked, and people’s health is improved. Therefore, we support this project by offsetting our CO₂ emissions. However, the long-term goal is to reduce emissions to a minimum.

For a project to succeed in a company, it always needs the active support of the employees. The Time for Climate Action project week therefore aims to motivate not only companies but also their teams to become active in climate and environmental protection. As part of the planning for the project week, the Green Payment People were founded. This internal group is made up of Computop employees who want to exchange ideas about environmental and climate issues and think together about how the company can do even more for the climate and the environment. Some great suggestions have already been collected, especially with regard to the factor of mobility, which emits the most CO₂, not only at Computop.

Recycling ocean plastic

Another initiative worth supporting is the “Plastic Bank” project in Haiti. Here, the concern of the Little Prince is taken literally and the cleanliness of the planet, especially the oceans, is taken care of. People collect plastic waste, thus making the oceans cleaner and can, for example, send their children to school from the money they receive for the plastic. In addition, the collected plastic is put to good use again. The company Wild Plastic processes it into rubbish bags or into filling material for shipping goods. So the planet gets a little cleaner every day and the production of new plastic is avoided. Otto, Germany’s largest online retailer, is also involved here. Together with the company Wild Plastic, they have developed a shipping bag made of ocean plastic, which is collected from the “Plastic Bank” project in Haiti, among others. As Otto’s payment service provider, Computop supports this cycle by double offsetting our CO₂ emissions during the project week and thus supporting the “Plastic Bank” initiative in Haiti.

For us, there is more than just one Earth Day! How about you? Take a look right now: Here you can determine your personal CO₂ footprint and reduce carbon emissions in less than 5 minutes!