Pina Earth x Liefergrün: Case Study

Climate Action at the Doorstep

Pina Earth and Liefergrün share the vision of creating a more sustainable future, aligned with transparency and a consistent mission. By joining forces with Pina Earth, Liefergrün has made a climate contribution equivalent to its unavoidable annual emissions, turning 65,000 square meters of local forest into climate-resilient mixed forests. This is how the company takes responsibility - right at the doorstep of its customers.

As a sustainable delivery provider, Liefergrün seeks to make a significant contribution to a livable future. With exclusively electrified vehicles, the company ensures that the "last mile" of delivery is largely emission-free, reducing CO2 emissions by up to 90% compared to traditional parcel service providers. This has captured the interest of end consumers, as sustainability is increasingly important to them (HDE Handelsverband Deutschland 2022). Through Liefergrün, customers of H&M, Adidas, Dyson, COS, Hive, and Petsdeli can now have their packages delivered sustainably and swiftly to their doorsteps.

"We founded Liefergrün with the motivation to put an end to the polluting parcel industry. As a team, we strive to offer the best service to our customers and be pioneers in providing the most sustainable shipping solution for e-commerce. We are making sustainability the new standard, without the premium price. And I firmly believe that Liefergrün is scalable on a large scale with technological support." - CEO and Founder, Niklas Tauch

Liefergrün achieves this by utilizing distribution centers near city centers and delivering packages in electrified vehicles. This is made possible by specifically developed software that calculates the optimal and most efficient routes for drivers. The trained drivers achieve 98% successful delivery on the first delivery attempt through technologized interaction with customers.

The Challenge

As an impact-driven company, sustainability is ingrained in Liefergrün's DNA. However, complete avoidance of CO2 emissions is not always possible. To make these emissions tangible, the company first quantified its footprint (Scope 1-3). The major sources of emissions include terminal equipment and services, logistics-related emissions, and emissions from heating and electricity in distribution centers and office spaces.

To take responsibility for the remaining emissions, Liefergrün invests in climate protection projects capable of capturing emissions equivalent to its footprint. As a sustainable and transparent company that emphasizes short and efficient routes, Liefergrün aims to bind emissions primarily in the locations where they occur: in Germany.

"We want to bind greenhouse gas emissions where we cause them. This way, we can not only protect our local forests but also ensure that we have a real impact. We are not interested in supporting opaque and unreliable offset projects that claim to achieve carbon neutrality." - Anna Kollmer, Sustainability

To make the scale of CO2 emissions tangible, Liefergrün often uses the comparison to forests. If all parcels in urban areas of Germany were delivered in the last mile with as few emissions as possible, as with green delivery, this would result in an emissions reduction equivalent to the annual CO2 absorption capacity of more than 25 million trees.

The Solution

Pina Earth enables effective climate protection in local forests. By financing forest adaptation measures with CO2 certificates, risky monocultures across Germany are transformed into biodiverse mixed forests.

Liefergrün contributes to climate action by investing in CO2 certificates from the "Luckaitz Valley" climate protection project. With this investment, 65,000 square meters of pine forest in Brandenburg will be transformed into climate-resilient mixed forests. Previously, this area was dominated by over 88% pine trees and faced immediate climate risks such as droughts, storms, and pest infestations. The contribution by Liefergrün will support critical measures, including the planting of diverse tree species.

With Pina Earth, Liefergrün has found a long-term partner who will ensure that the forest adaptation is implemented as planned over long project periods. Both companies are united in their vision to create a more sustainable future, transparently and consistently. 

"Liefergrün is a proud supporter of Pina Earth's forest adaptation projects in Germany. Our contribution climate-proofs the forests in Brandenburg and enables the future elimination of emissions equivalent to our 2022 corporate carbon footprint. In our opinion, this is exactly the right way to go. In the future, we would like to continue to protect the regional climate and make our contribution with Pina Earth." - CEO & Founder Niklas Tauch