SPIR STAR® AG receives award for near-natural company premises
SPIR STAR® AG is awarded “Silver” as the first company in Germany to be awarded for near-natural company premises
Lean meadows with wildflowers, a small watercourse, amphibian pools and deadwood full of life – these are just some of the elements of SPIR STAR® AG’s near-natural site. For the redesign, the company in Rimbach, Hesse, has now been awarded the “Silver” plaque, proving that company premises and industrial estates can also be valuable places of biodiversity. SPIR STAR® AG is the first company to receive an award as part of the “Thousands of Gardens – Thousands of Species” project funded by the German Federal Program for Biological Diversity, on May 17, 2022.
For the past 3 years, SPIR STAR® AG has been working with the Heinz Sielmann Foundation to transform the company’s approximately 13,000-square-foot site. Initiator of it all was Ruben de Graaf, CEO of the company SPIR STAR AG, who saw the foundation in a TV feature in 2019. Mr. de Graaf was particularly pleased with the award: “We companies also have responsibility for our environment. There is no Planet B. I am proud of what we have accomplished on our corporate campus.”
In recent years, there have been some changes here – weed-inhibiting fleeces have been pulled out of the ground and the exotic plants have been replaced with native species.
The employees of SPIR STAR® AG also contributed to the transformation, a Benjes hedge was built in teamwork and the employees also actively offered their help with the planting work. Through the redesign, native species such as fence lizards, insects, dragonflies and wild bees quickly found their new habitat.
Meadow areas are mowed less frequently and sheep are used in the large rough pasture as natural and active conservationists to maintain the cultural landscape.
The company’s commitment was rewarded by the project “Thousands of Gardens – Thousands of Species” with a plaque in “Silver”, which was awarded by Bernd Assenmacher from the Wissenschaftsladen Bonn.
Picture: © Luca Siermann/bundesfoto