Gabriele Renner and Sabine Stein, owners of the textile company pervormance international from Ulm, were received in Monaco by Prince Albert and “Plant for the Planet” founder Felix Finkbeiner. The Ulm entrepreneurs support the environmental organization Plant-for-the-Planet, whose patron is Prince Albert II. Professor Franz Josef Radermacher from Ulm, representing the Club of Rome, “Der Bergdoktor” actor Hans Sigl and the entrepreneurs Alfred Ritter from Ritter Sport and Michael Durach from Develey as well as representatives from environmental organizations such as the WWF also took part in the event.
“We have been the world’s first climate-neutral textile company since 2013 and in Monaco we have converted our contribution of 246,920 kilograms of CO2 per year into trees for the Trillion Trees campaign of the Plant-for-the-Planet organization Prince Albert of Monaco, the patron the organization,” reports Gabriele Renner from the reception in the Principality. In addition, the Ulm-based company’s compensation went to a forest protection project in Papua New Guinea. “We not only want to protect people against heat stress, we also want to secure the future of our children sustainably and preserve the environment in order to prevent further heat problems caused by global warming,” explains Sabine Stein. Therefore, the cooling functional textiles are produced exclusively in Germany and Europe under the brand name E.COOLINE. “This means we can always control how our products are manufactured. This does cost a little more. But it’s worth it to us.” The company also joined the UN Global Compact and the Women’s Empowerment program in 2013 to strengthen the rights of women in the world and the two entrepreneurs were appointed to the “Senate of Business” in 2011. “Here we are committed to responsible business conduct, sustainability and the Senate’s World Forest Climate Initiative,” emphasizes Gabriele Renner, whose functional clothing works like an “air conditioning system you can wear,” cooling the body up to 12°C and saves at least 90% CO2 compared to air conditioning. This helps, for example, to protect those affected by multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s or cardiovascular diseases, as well as fire departments or construction workers and athletes from heat problems. Weltweit wurden bereits über 100.000 Textilien mit der High-Tech-Funktionskühlung verkauft. “This is a completely new market that we are currently developing here. Until now, there was no alternative to energy-intensive air conditioning systems and – compared to our products – they don’t even work outdoors,” explains Sabine Stein. In 2011, this was also worth it for the Federal President to award the “Land of Ideas” innovation prize, which was then presented to the entrepreneurs by Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann in Stuttgart Castle. In the meantime, cooling vests for dogs and cooling blankets for horses are also being developed. “Further exciting projects in the health sector and cosmetics are about to be introduced,” announces Gabriele Renner.
Press articles about this report appeared in the Südwestpresse, Augsburger Allgemeine, Neu-Ulmer Zeitung, etc.
