Online Advice
Different Online Advisers offer quick and competent advice on various aspects of room heating, energy saving modernisation measures, grants and on various aspects of electricity saving. Thus far, more than 700 partners have integrated the Online Advisers into their own web sites – including ZDF German Television, the online property marketplace Immobilienscout24, and E.ON. The Online Advisers are completed by 50,000 to 100,000 people each month, depending on the season. By now more than 3,000,000 online consultations have been completed since July 2004.

Heating Check in English on Germany, use postal code 1234

PumpsCheck in English on UK, use postal code CB2 4RG

Cooling Check

BestPractice Archive

Since we have insufficient manpower to translate all of our website, we would ask you to use Google's automatic translation service, available here.

Media Campaigns 
The campaign cooperates nationwide with radio, television and print media, but does not buy advertisement. The "ZDF.umwelt" programme and the climate protection campaign organised the fifth "champion energy saver" competition in 2009, this year targeted at school classes. Ten winners who demonstrably saved on energy as well as on CO₂ have been awarded with 50,000 Euro in total in May. 
Germany’s oldest polar research ship, the "Grönland", will again sail the North Sea under "No CO₂" sails this summer. The message aboard will be "protect climate – get active". Visitors are informed about sustainable usage of energy in several ports along the North Sea.

Climate Protection Partners
Climate protection partners motivate, inform and give the people in their area a better understanding of climate protection matters. Partners can be MPs in state, federal or European parliaments, for example. Visitors to their internet sites are presented with the Online Advisers as a first step towards climate protection and money saving.

Online Climate Quiz "Mission Blue Planet"
The Climate Quiz "Mission Blue Planet" presents information and answers to over 1000 questions, for three age groups between 7 and 17, on the subject of weather, climate, and energy saving. The central themes explore the links between energy generation, energy consumption, weather and climate and the consequences of climate change. Two editions of more than 50,000 CD-ROMs in total have already been distributed. An online version is also available which even allows to challenge friends by email to compete against the clock.

Awards
2009: The "champion energy saver" competition has been awarded the recognition as an "Official German Project for the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development", a worldwide initiative by the UNESCO which is implemented in Germany with the support of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research under the patronage of the German Federal President Horst Köhler.
August 2008: The "Clean Tech Media Award", Germany's first environmental media award, was awarded to co2online in the category "sustainability". The award was presented for the website content, the online advisers and the extensive networking.
2008: The tour of the "Grönland" was named one of 365 "Landmarks in the Land of Ideas 2008", an initiative by the German government and commerce and industry under the patronage of the German Federal President Horst Köhler.
2007: Dr. Johannes Hengstenberg, co2online’s founder, was selected an Ashoka Fellow as “social entrepreneur” (someone who reaches societal goals with business tools). 
2007: co2online won the Sustainable Energy Europe Award in the category "Awareness Raiser". The Award for the "Climate Seeks Protection" campaign and its online tools, adaptable all over Europe, was presented for an outstanding contribution to reaching Europe’s energy targets. 
October 2006: The Giga-Maus Award for the best online offer for "secondary school level" was given to co2online’s free online climate quiz "Mission Blue Planet". The Giga-Maus was awarded during the Frankfurt Book Fair and is a widely respected endorsement for quality software for children and families.

Evaluation
Impact analyses of 4 Online Advisers (Heating, Building Modernisation; Cooling Appliances, Pumps) and of the written heating assessments showed that more than 3,5 million tons of CO₂ will be avoided over the expected lifetime of these investments. The costs of these tools add up to about 1 Euro per ton of CO₂ avoided. The calculations were validated by Wuppertal Institute.
In addition, co2online quarterly publishes a "climate barometer". By means of online surveys, it determines the public sentiment on and interest in energy prices, security of energy supply and climate protection.

 

co2online and the Climate Protection Campaign
co2online is a non-profit company that is campaigning for a reduction in emissions of the environmentally harmful gas carbon dioxide (CO₂). The central approach is: climate protection by means of energy saving through dialogue. With Online Advisers, Municipal Heating Surveys, an Energy Savings Account and a Climate Quiz as well as portal partners from business, media and politics, co2online motivates private households, trade and commerce to become actively involved in climate protection – and to save money at the same time!

co2online (www.co2online.de) informs and motivates mainly on modernisation measures for heating and thermal insulation in existing buildings and energy-saving appliances and is running the "Climate Seeks Protection" campaign, which is co-funded by the German Environment Ministry.
First projects outside Germany were started in fall 2006 because of growing interest in the Online Advisers from Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, UK, or Poland.

"Climate Seeks Protection": A Campaign to Get Involved In
840 million tons of CO₂ are emitted each year in Germany. Private households are responsible for one seventh of this, which equates to 120 million tons in total. 80% of the energy they consume is used exclusively for heating and hot water. With today's technology, about half of the resulting CO₂ emissions are economically avoidable.
The aim of the campaign is to reduce the CO₂ emissions of private households and small consumers due to heating, electricity and transport. Because: curbing the climate change is one of the central challenges of the 21st century. Those who save (fossil fuel) energy are helping to stop the growing proportion of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Kyoto-Protocol: Trigger for the Campaign 
The climate protection campaign supports the fulfilment of the obligations that Germany has taken on in the framework of the Kyoto Protocol. In 1997, in Kyoto, Japan, 150 countries agreed to the "Kyoto Protocol". According to this protocol, by 2012 the industrial states must reduce their emissions of CO₂, methane and other greenhouse gases by 5.2 % in comparison with 1990 levels. The European Union must reduce emissions by 8 % and the USA by 7 %. The "Kyoto Protocol" came into force on February 16th 2005.