It’s not often in life that you can talk about a life-changing experience. Of course, there are nice moments that we like to remember, but a moment that turns our lives upside down is relatively rare in comparison.
But that’s exactly what happened to us about a year ago. At that time, Alex was still head of marketing at an agency in Osnabrück and was concerned with the question of what companies could contribute and achieve to climate protection.
He read all the books he could get his hands on on the subject, took part in events on climate protection and exchanged ideas with experienced companies that already had experience in this area.
Then he met Anni. She enjoyed the summer with her friends in Hanover and pondered what her future career as a scientist in peatland protection could look like. While first dates usually take place in restaurants with fancy drinks, we were both drawn straight to the outdoors: to lakes, forests, van life events and finally to peatlands, for which Anni had a particular passion.
So it wasn’t long before Alex was infected by her passion for wetlands and learned how important this ecosystem is for numerous plants and animals, but above all why we humans should take care of the protection of wetlands as soon as possible.
Alex learned that peatlands work like a sponge and can protect us from floods and droughts. That our peatlands not only store their available water sustainably, but also function as a natural filter. But there is another absolute superpower of peatlands: they store gigantic amounts of CO₂. They bind twice as much CO₂ as all the forests on this planet combined. Under special conditions, one hectare of peatland can absorb four times as much carbon as a forest. But the sad truth is that here in Germany over 95% of the peatlands have been destroyed.
The reason for this is the creation of farmland such as arable land and grassland and the burning of valuable peat for heating in the 19th century. What may have made sense in the past (today we tend to use peat for potting soil) is now a major threat in the context of the climate crisis. This is because drained peatlands emit huge amounts of stored CO₂ and are therefore a danger to our planet. While scientists have long been aware of the importance of peatlands and how critical the situation is, most people seem to be unaware of this.
That’s how Alex felt a year ago, and he asked himself: “Why aren’t we talking about the wetland’s superpower? Why don’t we use them?
One of the problems is that many people think of peatlands as stinking wasteland, mosquitoes and, in the worst case, gruesome bog bodies. Peatlands do not have a positive image and people (and companies) prefer to invest in the restoration of forests, which is much less efficient when it comes to long-term carbon storage.
It is time for a rethink so that we all recognize the power of peatlands and act accordingly to protect the few remaining peatlands and quickly restore what we can still save. This is how the idea for our non-profit company was born.
We see wetland protection as our best chance to mitigate climate change and would like to offer people and companies a platform to get involved.
The decision to set up the company was to change both our lives forever.
