Reduce instead of compensate: How our glass production became CO₂-neutral

In collaboration with our supplier Wiegand-Glas and the eco2bottle program, we were able to reduce emissions for our glass soulbottles by 75%. And all thanks to a rather clever idea from soulie Julian.

The idea behind soulbottles is (and always has been) to protect our planet with a drinking bottle . Because consuming tap water from reusable drinking bottles saves a lot of plastic and CO₂ . In almost nine years of entrepreneurship, we learned early on that sustainability doesn't stop at this idea, and we are constantly working to become even more sustainable. My colleague Isa, for example, has studied the difference between climate-neutral products and a climate-neutral company and why we at soulbottles chose the latter.

Essentially, climate neutrality or climate neutralization means that all CO₂ emissions are offset through climate projects. That is, through projects that help capture CO₂ from the atmosphere, for example, in forests or moors. Of course, even more efficient than capturing emissions is preventing them in the first place. And we've reached a pretty significant milestone in preventing the creation of CO₂ in the soulbottles manufacturing process.

Update 2024: From now on, we will use and promote the term " climate-neutralized ." "Climate-neutral" creates the impression that no CO₂ is produced during production. This is false. We try to produce as little as possible, but it's impossible to produce a product without any CO₂ emissions. We therefore offset all CO₂ emissions generated, thereby doing something good for the climate. The term "climate-neutralized" better reflects this.

Where can we save CO₂?

We ask ourselves this question constantly. Especially the soulies who source materials for us and oversee the production process. In recent years, for example, they've been able to steadily increase the proportion of recycled glass in our soulbottles, because recycled glass requires much less energy to melt . And you may have noticed that our products are shipped in grass boxes: These are made partly from recycled cardboard and grass fibers, as this saves CO₂ and water.

match made in heaven

So when our glass supplier introduced the eco2bottle program, we were immediately excited. It's a perfect fit for us! eco2bottle is an initiative that supports companies in closely examining their glass production and finding ways to make it even more sustainable. Julian, our purchasing soulie, looked into the concept and put forward his own suggestion: switching to 100% biomethane as an energy source. And our supplier, Wiegand-Glas, agreed – yay!

create a real impact together

Together with eco2bottle and Wiegand-Glas, we've been able to make significant improvements to our glass production over the past few years: We've increased the recycled content, optimized our packaging, and switched to biomethane. Compared to the original 1.0 l glass soulbottle, we now emit approximately 75% less CO₂. We're really celebrating this and are very excited about what else we can do in the future. You can find more information directly on eco2bottle's soulbottles landing page .