This startup wants to make online shops more climate-friendly

February 19, 2021, 6:00 p.m.

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We order more online than ever. It’s not good for our climate. Varena Junge wants to change that with her startup Yook.

We buy shoes, cosmetics, technology and even furniture online. This has many advantages: It’s practical, it’s quick and we can basically buy everything we need – despite the pandemic. It’s a great thing for consumers, but not for our climate. Our consumption is responsible for around 40 percent of our personal CO2 footprint in Germany. Although should Studies prove that e-commerce is much more climate-friendly than stationary retail; Nevertheless, there are plenty of emissions.

Varena Junge and Antoine Verger have developed a solution for shop providers to make their e-commerce more climate-friendly Startup Yook founded. With Yook, the two founders are developing a software solution that should make it possible to integrate CO2 information and options for offsetting into the existing ordering process in every online shop. Similar to flight bookings, customers of an online shop can offset the carbon footprint of their order.

Yook relies on climate-conscious decisions

The Yook tool is not only intended to compensate for the emissions caused; above all, customers also receive transparency about the emissions caused by their orders. “Instead of a few perfect climate heroes, we need as many imperfect climate protectors as possible,” says Yook founder Junge. Showing consumers what effect they have on the climate when they shop can be a good step towards making them more climate-conscious decisions – in addition to the actual compensation.

The software of the Hamburg start-up is currently in the beta version. In addition to the software, the company also curates the projects into which the climate protection taxes ultimately flow. Yook wants to make the application as simple as possible for retailers and end consumers. Yook’s web plug-in is compatible with common shop systems and, according to the founder, should be implemented within five minutes.

Climate protector meets developer

The two founders of Yook, Junge and Verger, seem to complement each other perfectly as a duo. Junge herself has been a climate activist since she was 15, studied environmental sciences and got involved with Greenpeace. So she has the expertise in climate protection and with Enyway already launched a startup with a sustainable business model. Verger has the technical know-how for this; he is a software developer. He also has many years of experience in e-commerce, including with the Otto Group.

Doing something against climate change as quickly as possible and getting as many people as possible to participate – that’s what drives us.

Even if the startup has only been working full-time on the idea since September 2020, Junge and Verger are no longer alone. Behind the startup is a team of seven that has already been able to collect the first funds from investors. Several business angels from the fields of e-commere, B2B and impact investing are at the Hamburgers’ side. Yook is one of many young startups with a sustainable mission and the founder firmly believes in the success of her concept. “Do something about climate change as quickly as possible and get as many people as possible to participate – that’s what drives us.”

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