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4.6 millions: the tons of carbon emissions saved globally by one man ... with his computer ?

Published 25th October 2010 - 0 comments - 1193 views -

When it's come to Climate Challenge, it is true that nobody can do everything, but everyone can do something. This is the success story of Dr Johannes Hengstenberg, a German environmentalists and social entrepreneurs whose work inspire me for my social and environemental projects in Madagascar.

Dr Johannes Hengstenberg runs co2online, a non-profit limited liability company campaigning to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) by means of energy saving through dialogue; a service that helps households reduce greenhouse emissions and also save money.

“4.6 In millions, the tons of carbon emissions saved globally through Dr Johannes Hengstenberg’s online campaign and energy efficiency consultation services”

Dr. Johannes D. Hengstenberg

Dr. Johannes D. Hengstenberg, Geschäftsführer der co2online gGmbH, 2008
(c) co2online, 2009 (http://www.co2online.de)

Johannes Hengstenberg is convinced that climate protection is not abstract and complicated but is a question of sound communication and access to information. Johannes developed a hands-on system that shows how easy it is to save energy: He provides online tools that enable consumers to track their energy consumption and to take action to reduce it. He is changing how citizens consume, as well as build or remodel homes, by demonstrating the additional value of saving energy.


Johannes has been interested in social and environmental issues since childhood.Active in the environmental and peace movements, Johannes left his economics research in 1987 to help found the Global Challenge Network (GCN). The GCN began as an international CO whose mission was to link various global initiatives tackling problems of war and armament, the North-South conflict, and environmental destruction. There, he focused on bringing leading scientists from renowned think tanks together with activists from environmental organizations such as Greenpeace and Bund fuer Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (league for the environment and nature conservation), as a way to facilitate the exchange of information and expertise. After the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, he went to East Germany, where he co-founded a CO for environmental protection.


Increasingly disillusioned by political debates on the growing threat of global warming, Johannes decided to devote his efforts full-time to finding a pragmatic approach to climate change. In 1992, he and a group of friends went to work figuring out how to analyze energy bills. Their simple goal: To make energy consumption transparent. It was from this office that the online service and many subsequent projects developed.

 


Johannes was awarded the Sustainable Energy Europe Award in 2007, Ashoka Fellow since 2007 and was one of five finalists for the German Social Entrepreneur 2008 Award of the Schwab Foundation, and won the 2008 CleanTech Media Award for sustainability.

Category: Climate Heroes, | Tags:



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