Mobile internet for everyone and everything
Sustainability
Standing up for Our Values - Also When It Comes to the Environment
We can't ignore it either: the topic sustainability. Neither do we claim to be sustainability pioneers, nor can we save the world. But we can, want to and must make our contribution.
We are committed to treating our customers in a free, fair and progressive manner. Thus, we have to keep this promise to our environment as well. That is why we have calculated the emissions of our business activities and compensate our CO2 emissions.
From Sustainability to Our Carbon Footprint
The term "sustainability" is on everyone's lips. But can you give an exact definition? Hardly anyone is able to do that. And we certainly can't. Before we started calculating our emissions, however, we first wanted to put the issue into context. Therefore, we refer to the term sustainable development, which emerged in the context of the Brundtland Report of the United Nations, as a way of life that does not limit the opportunities of future generations. In the course of time, three pillars of sustainability have developed, on the basis of which sustainable goals are pursued: environmental, economic and social sustainability.
One step at a time: We'll tackle the environmental pillar first. As a small company, this is where we can act most quickly and efficiently. For us, this means that we want to offer connectivity in such a way that as few emissions as possible are produced, which pollute the environment.
The first step is to know our carbon footprint – in other words, the amount of emissions generated by our company's activities. In common calculations, three different "scopes" are assumed: Scope 1 refers to emissions caused by business activities directly, while scopes 2 and 3 refer to emissions that occur indirectly. As a provider of mobile Internet, our emissions are mainly assigned to the latter two scopes.
To be precise, our carbon footprint includes what is emitted by our operational activities. When you browse the internet and binge-watch a series on Netflix, we count that as your emissions, not ours. Since our subscriptions run on the Sunrise network, the emissions generated by the network infrastructure are already compensated by Sunrise's ambitious activities. We include the following in our ecological footprint:
- our electricity consumption and the required heating energy
- the commute of the whole team
- the daily meals of all employees
- the waste produced
- the material used, such as SIM cards, envelopes and flyers
- the distribution of our SIM cards
- the operation of our servers
- other emissions associated with the purchase of products and services
After taking all these factors into account, we were finally able to determine the number of tons of CO2 that we produce each year. ... So what next?
Avoid, Reduce, Compensate
Avoid
The first step is to try to avoid emissions and not emit any greenhouse gases.
Compensate
If neither avoidance nor reduction is possible, emissions can be compensated in the final step. This works by limiting greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere or by capturing the CO2, e.g. through reforestation projects.
Reduce
Whenever emissions cannot be avoided completely, they must be reduced, for example by saving energy.
Avoid
The first step is to try to avoid emissions and not emit any greenhouse gases.
Reduce
Whenever emissions cannot be avoided completely, they must be reduced, for example by saving energy.
Compensate
If neither avoidance nor reduction is possible, emissions can be compensated in the final step. This works by limiting greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere or by capturing the CO2, e.g. through reforestation projects.
Avoid
- Paper? At Digital Republic, we only use paper when we need to sign the invoice for the gin tonics. All work takes place digitally at our company.
- Business trips do not usually take place at our company. Meetings with partners or customers are held online.
Reduce
- Meetings often take place online, which eliminates the emissions of commuting to work. A few times a week, we go to the office - or our coworking space. This is powered by 100% green electricity.
- Servers drain energy. Unfortunately, we can't do without them. Luckily, the servers we use are also powered by 100% green electricity, which saves a massive amount of emissions.
- It starts small: instead of the paper cup in the office, we bring our own cups.
- It's also up to you: Activate an eSIM profile instead of a physical SIM card (if your device is eSIM-capable). This way we save the packaging material and the shipping.
Compensate
- The calculation of our ecological footprint has revealed our annual CO2 emissions. To offset this amount of CO2, we have picked a project at South Pole , which captures CO2.
- Through our referral program with our partner Eden Reforestation Projects , trees are planted in your name to contribute to reforestation and remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Since the regions suffering from deforestation are usually also those struggling from extreme poverty, the non-profit organization engages local people to plant trees. This provides them with a steady income and supports reforestation.
Through your recommendations and our partners at Eden Reforestation, 10,834 trees have already been planted. These trees already absorb about 135 tons of CO2 per year and are constantly growing!