A climate-friendly Christmas market
‘Avoid, reduce, compensate’ is the motto the elves seek to adopt to help create a more sustainable Christmas festival, thereby consistently building on from their previous years’ work.
Various measures are taken to minimise energy consumption and ensure certified green electricity is used across the entire market. The CO2 emissions generated for market operations, setup and dismantling are compensated by virtue of trees being planted in co-operation with ‘Plant for the planet’. By the way: the ice rink at Heumarkt has already been able to call itself climate-neutral for several years.
Short transportation distances
By having a warehouse near the market and ensuring well planned logistics, we keep transportation distances short and, in recent years, have significantly reduced the volumes of fuel used.
LED lighting
We only use energy-saving LED lights to illuminate the ‘Heinzels Wintermärchen’ Christmas market.
Waste prevention
Our market restaurateurs and merchants primarily use paper napkins, and, where necessary, food is served in cardboard dishes with wooden cutlery. No disposable plastic cutlery is used.
Reusable system for cups and glasses
To minimise consumption emissions at the Christmas market, ‘Heinzels Wintermärchen’ does not use any disposable drinking vessels.
Waste separation
The elves separate their waste in co-operation with REMONDIS, so as to recycle as many resources as possible and avoid high emissions.
Sustainable timber
Only timber from sustainable forestry is used to build the stalls, bars and the ice rink.
Insulated refrigerant piping
To minimise energy loss, refrigerant piping was fitted as accurately as possible, and much of it also has insulated cladding.
Cooling mats
White cooling mats reduce the energy needed to keep the ice frozen.
State-of-the-art cooling units
The Aggreko electric cooling units used are based on state-of-the-art technology, and only provide cooling when necessary – similar to heated floors, only the other way around.
Professional ice maintenance
The ice masters from the ‘Lentpark’ run by KölnBäder GmbH maintain the rink regularly to ensure ice thickness is minimised, as this plays a big part in keeping energy consumption low.
Christmas trees
The Christmas trees on our Christmas market have their origin in a near-natural environment. 90% of the trees are rejects. This means, that they can't be sold on a normal Christmas tree sale. After the Christmas market, the trees get shredded and composted. They won't be burned but led back to nature in a natural way.
