Energy
Our servers and offices run 100% on green energy from Green Planet Energy, which comes from hydro stations and wind turbines in Austria and Germany. Green Planet Energy makes no compromises in terms of its supply concept and development of new facilities:
- No greenwashing: Green Planet Energy does not label power from coal or nuclear sources as green energy. Green Planet Energy is the only energy supplier in Germany that complies with the electricity criteria of the environmental organisation Greenpeace.
- Transparency: Green Planet Energy openly displays its supply sources for its customers to see.
- Promoting new facilities: Green Planet Energy promotes developing renewable energies, for example, by building new, clean power plants or by investing in environmentally oriented and decentralised supply concepts.
- Political participation: Green Planet Energy gets involved in political debates and legislative processes to actively advance the energy transition.
In 2018, with a sponsorship of more than 25,000 EUR for the green energy integration, we were able to contribute to the fact that a new data centre of our carrier in Frankfurt/Main will also be supplied with genuine green energy from Green Planet Energy (which at the time was still known as Greenpeace Energy). In spring 2020, we launched operations at the new, additional location in Frankfurt/Main.
Office and Organisation
- No flights: Since it was founded in 2009, Posteo has abstained entirely from business flights to protect the climate.
- Additional holidays for train trips: Posteo offers all employees additional holidays for using climate-friendly train trips instead of flying during private holiday trips.
- Free public transportation ticket: Our employees receive a free annual ticket for local public transportation.
- Free, organic-vegetarian lunch: Posteo offers all employees a daily, organic-vegetarian lunch. The costs for this (including our own chef) are completely covered by the company.
- Organic drinks and snacks: Posteo's office has free coffee, tea, cold beverages, fruit and snacks of organic quality.
- Social responsibility as an employer: Posteo engages its employees with permanent contracts. To make work and family more compatible, we allow flexible work hours and various part time options. There is an office where parents can be with their children.
- Free bicycle repair: Posteo employees can have their bike repaired by a mechanic free of charge.
- Recycled paper: We use 100% recycled paper in all areas of the business.
- Computer-controlled heating: This optimises our energy use, modifying the temperature according to the circumstances (e.g. night, weekend, open window).
- Energy-efficient hardware: We use hardware that is energy-efficient and low in pollutants.
- Purchase of new equipment and sustainability criteria: With new purchases we concentrate not only on low prices but also the sustainability of the respective products.
- Furniture: Our offices are fitted out with desks made from FSC-certified wood, as well as office furniture made from recycled materials.
Finances
- Finance: Posteo does business sustainably. The company is free of debts and loans. There are no investors. Posteo has only one source of finance – the fees paid by its users. This allows us to work independently and with privacy orientation. We can completely refuse to use tracking, for example, because being financed by user contributions means we do not require any revenue from advertising.
- Company account: We are set up sustainably – also in terms of money. Posteo users’ credit is held in our account with the socially-ecological GLS Bank. GLS Bank uses this money solely to finance ecological and social projects.
- Savings: Our savings are deposited at the Umweltbank (Germany’s green/environmental bank). The bank uses this money to promote environmental projects, in particular in the fields of renewable energy, energy efficiency, environmentally-friendly production, the circular economy, agriculture and recycling.
- Donations: We regularly donate to NGOs that are active with environmental protection. If a Posteo user closes their account, they can ask us to donate their remaining credit to an NGO.
- Audits: We voluntarily choose to be audited annually by a large, independent auditing company.
Technics
- Data economy for climate protection: By refraining from unnecessary logging and tracking, we save energy and hardware.
- Energy-efficient hardware: We have set up energy-efficient hardware both in the office and for the servers.
- Spam rejection: By default, the spam folder is deactivated at Posteo. Emails that have been identified as spam are therefore not even accepted by our server. By rejecting spam messages, we save storage space for our users and conserve resources. You can always be informed about all rejected emails with the activated spam log. Regardless, you can also activate the spam folder at Posteo.
- Greylisting: So-called greylisting keeps most spam messages away from our servers and thereby greatly reduces energy use.
- Migration service: Our migration service makes a complete transition to Posteo easier and allows termination of old accounts.
- Efficient programming: Preventing energy from being wasted, through optimised design of relevant processes.
- Appropriate-sized servers: Our systems are sized to cope with demand and can grow in a flexible manner. This saves resources: Overly large server spaces are often enormous power-guzzlers.
Ad-free
- No finance from advertising: The existence of many internet services is reliant upon the money and goodwill of advertisers. Posteo is an independent provider that conducts business sustainably and finances itself solely from its customers' contributions.
- Data efficiency by renouncing advertising: We have no interest in selling our users' personal information to the advertising industry. Because of this, we refrain entirely from advertisers and our website is free of tracking tools. As a matter of principle, we do not collect any personally related data of our customers. Payment data is completely separated from email accounts.