These are figures that make people sit up and take notice: Within five years, the number of green electricity customers at energy service provider E.ON has quadrupled. At its competitor RWE, the business from offshore wind farms, at 781 million euros, contributes twice as much to the Group's operating result as the coal and nuclear power business (381 million). But the ecological rethink is not only worthwhile for the energy industry.

Werner & Mertz, the Mainz-based manufacturer of household chemicals, has also benefited from its consistently close commitment in recent years. While sales in 2010 were still at 212 million euros, the company expects sales to more than double to 525 million euros by 2020. Although or because Werner & Mertz is so committed to sustainability? Probably the latter. Since 2013, Frosch products have been Cradle to Cradle Certified.^TM certified process. Contrary to the cradle-to-cradle principle, the cradle-to-cradle principle ensures a raw material cycle that theoretically produces no waste.

BMW shows where this thinking can lead in the automotive industry with its i3. The electric car is 95 percent recyclable and already consists to a large extent of recycled or renewable raw materials. BMW also says that only green electricity is used in production. While 551 BMW i3s were registered in January 2020, by November 2020 the number had already far more than doubled to 1299 vehicles.