Sonnenglas Bright Minds: Florian Henle

Florian Henle

Florian Henle is co-founder and Managing Director ofPolarstern, a green electricity and green gas provider that is about more than just business. He previously helped to set up a Swiss start-up in the field of renewable lubricants. Florian Henle studied International Business Administration. He is now 38 years old and the father of two sons - the first was born at almost the same time as Polarstern was founded.

You founded Polarstern in 2011. What drove you back then?

To blame is "the meaning". We, i.e. my co-founders Jakob and Simon and I, wanted to put our labour to good use. To do something with and for our future. We were familiar with the energy market from our previous jobs and we recognised enormous potential here: although up to 80 percent of our energy needs at home are for heating, when we founded Polarstern in 2011, there was no green gas from 100 percent renewable energy sources that was also competitive and did not contain any energy crops or biomass from factory farming.

And so we set about developing such a product. That was the origin of Polarstern. Many other products have since followed. We see many opportunities, especially in local electricity generation in buildings - single-family homes and apartment blocks - and are happy to break new ground. Our clear goal is to develop offerings in this area and really drive forward the energy transition. Polarstern is called Polarstern because we want to be a trend-setting star in the energy market - we have this ambition: Changing the world with energy.

Your products are called "Wirklich Ökostrom" and "Wirklich Ökogas", among others. Why is that?

The "Wirklich" in our product names expresses the fact that we always focus on 100 per cent renewable energy and sustainable management. We make no compromises in this respect. For example, we are completely independent of nuclear and coal-fired power plants.

We are concerned with all-round sustainable offerings - and that goes beyond the individual product. A product or a measure quickly becomes a fig leaf. In contrast, our view of the company and its business activities is more holistic and genuine. As a social enterprise and member of the Economy for the Common Good, ecological and social aspects are just as important to us as economic ones.

You want to initiate a movement with Polarstern. What exactly do you mean by that?

We apply values orientated towards the common good as a benchmark in everything we do. We communicate and practise this intensively - and have it regularly certified by independent third parties in the form of the common good balance sheet. And we are committed to the Economy for the Common Good and social entrepreneurship at events and lectures. By publicising the economic approach and demonstrating that social and business go together - very well indeed - we are planting and strengthening an idea and initiating a movement.

Every customer who switches to Polarstern supports the construction of a biogas plant for a Cambodian family. Can you tell us more about this?

In the end, the energy transition can only work if we look at it globally. And this is precisely where we see the industrialised countries as having a duty to help developing and emerging countries not to make the same mistakes we have made and grow at the expense of our valuable fossil resources. They should put themselves directly on the right track. And this is where we are working with Polarstern in Cambodia.

Instead of cooking on open fires with harmful, even deadly smoke and burning firewood from the forests or paraffin, we are giving families there the chance to generate their own energy. And that works really well with micro-biogas plants.

Almost all of the families have cattle and/or pigs and their manure is used to produce gas in the micro-biogas plants and fed directly into the kitchen via pipes. Gas lamps can also be connected. The big advantage: the families not only generate their own energy, they also directly improve their living conditions. This is because a waste product of biogas production is a super organic fertiliser that significantly increases their yields in the fields. The micro-biogas plant is therefore their gateway to a better, healthier and more sustainable life.

Click here for our latest "Bright Minds" interview with author and ranger Gesa Neitzel.

The questions were asked by Nina Ryschawy.

<div class="copyrights">photo in header © Polarstern</div>