Service and logos
Service and logos
Communication made easy: text modules, logos and video material at a glance
Logos (web versions)
| seal of approval | Web version | |
|---|---|---|
| Green Electricity | png format | jpg format |
| Genuine Biogas | png format | jpg format |
Logos (print versions)
| Print version | Logo set |
|---|---|
| eps format | zip format |
| eps format | zip format |
Terms of use
If you need other file variants, just contact us. Your contact person can be found at the bottom of this page.
Text modules german
Green Electricity Label Key Messages
(98 words)
The Green Electricity Label is the only green electricity label in Germany that is supported by leading environmental associations such as NABU and BUND. It offers consumers a simple guide to the right green electricity tariff in the complex electricity market.
- 100 % genuine green electricity from renewable energy sources
- Guaranteed investments in new plants and innovative energy projects
- Recommended and supported by associations for environment, peace and consumer:inside
- Independent certification to the highest environmental standards
- First green electricity label in Germany since 1998
The core criterion of Green Electricity certification is that electricity suppliers support the expansion of renewable energies with a fixed amount per kilowatt hour sold. So far, more than 1,800 energy transition projects have been realized and co-financed in this way.
Green Gas Label Key Messages
(89 words)
The Green Gas Label is the only biogas label in Germany that is supported by leading environmental associations such as NABU and BUND. It offers consumers a simple guide to the right biogas tariff in the complex market for gas products.
- With real biogas, environmentally compatible and resource-saving
- Promoting the energy transition, regionally and decentrally
- Recommended and supported by leading associations for environment, peace and consumer:inside
- Independent certification to the highest environmental standards
- First seal of approval for biogas products in Germany
The core criterion of the Green Gas Label is that the ecologically compatible production of biogas is ensured at all processing stages - from raw material to end consumer:in.
Green Electricity Label e.V.
(72 words)
The Grüner Strom Label e.V. certifies green energy products. The association awards two seals of approval for this purpose: the Green Electricity Label for green electricity with added value and the Green Gas Label for environmentally compatible biogas. The association is backed by non-profit environmental and consumer associations and peace organizations, including NABU, BUND, Deutsche Umwelthilfe and the Verbraucher Initiative. Green Electricity and Green Gas are the only seals of approval for green electricity and biogas in Germany that are supported and recommended by leading environmental associations.
Text modules english
Green electricity label key messages
(117 words)
The Grüner Strom-Label is the only green electricity label in Germany supported by leading environmental organizations like BUND, NABU or EUROSOLAR. It aims to help consumers find their way in the complex electricity market.
- Genuine green electricity 100 % sourced from renewable energy
- Guaranteed investments in new facilities and innovative energy projects
- Recommended by leading environmental organizations including consumer protection groups
- Independent third-party certification pursuant to highest environmental standards
- The first seal of approval for green electricity in Germany since 1998
A central aspect of the Grüner Strom certification is that electricity providers invest a fixed amount per kilowatt-hour in new renewable electricity generation plants. More than 1600 projects were realized and co-funded in this way.
Green gas label key messages
(105 words)
The Grünes Gas-Label is the only biogas label in Germany supported by environmental organizations like BUND, NABU or EUROSOLAR. It aims to help consumers find their way in the complex market for gas products.
- With genuine biogas sourced by environmentally-friendly means
- Advancement of regional and decentralized economic activity
- Recommendation and endorsement by leading environmental organizations and consumer information groups
- Independent third-party certification pursuant to highest environmental standards
- First seal of approval for biogas product options in Germany
A central aspect of the Green Gas certification is that the ecologically acceptable production of biogas is checked on all processing steps up to the raw material.
Green Electricity Label e.V.
(76 words)
The Gruener Strom Label association (Grüner Strom Label e.V.) issues two seals of approval - Grüner Strom is granted for green electricity and Grünes Gas is granted for biogas. The Bonn based association was founded in 1998 by several non-profit environmental organizations including consumer information groups and peace-furthering organizations, inter alia, NABU, BUND, EUROSOLAR and Verbraucher Initative. Grüner Strom and Grünes Gas are the only seals of approval in Germany, indicating endorsement by leading environmental organizations.
Green Electricity - The Green Electricity Label of Environmental Associations
The animated clip shows what the Green Electricity Label stands for and what benefits it brings. Anyone interested can embed the video on their homepage. The following options are available for embedding the video:
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Color table
The following table lists the values of the colors used in corporate marketing:
| Color | R | G | B | Color code |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gray | 102 | 102 | 102 | #666666 |
| Light gray | 246 | 246 | 246 | #f6f6f6 |
| Dark blue | 67 | 73 | 105 | #434969 |
| Orange | 238 | 142 | 34 | #ee8e22 |
| Green | 141 | 198 | 63 | #8dc63f |
Together for the energy turnaround
Your contact person
Melanie Alberts
Head of Communication & Marketing
What you should know about green electricity
Green electricity label
Frequently asked questions
With Green Electricity-certified green electricity tariffs, guaranteed investments flow into the expansion of renewable energies. The level of investment is determined by a fixed amount per kilowatt hour consumed. Thus, your green power purchase indirectly influences investments in the energy transition.The funding areas include the mobility transition, energy infrastructure, energy efficiency, and other projects that serve the energy transition, such as nature conservation, development cooperation, and education.
The full range of funding opportunities can be found in the criteria catalog for the Green electricity label. Selected energy transition projects can be found here.
The Green Electricity Label is awarded for a green electricity tariff, not for the provider itself. The label criteria therefore relate primarily to the tariff.Thus, the Green Electricity Label can be found on tariffs of independent green electricity providers as well as on tariffs of municipal utilities that sell conventional electricity in addition to the certified green electricity.
Nevertheless, the Green Electricity certification also looks at aspects concerning the supplier. For example, the Green Electricity label will not be granted to any company that is still directly involved in a coal-fired power plant on the cut-off date of 1.1.2027, i.e. operates a coal-fired power plant itself or is involved in an operating company with share capital/share capital. Participation in nuclear power plants is also an exclusion criterion.
You can find all the energy suppliers that offer certified green electricity here.
Among them are several nationwide providers as well as local and regional energy suppliers. In our tariff portal of the environmental associations for switching energy providers. You will find all tariffs and can easily switch to a real green electricity tariff with a green electricity label.
Green Electricity
Green electricity is electrical energy that comes from renewable sources. It can be generated from solar radiation, wind and water power, biomass, geothermal energy or sewage gas.
Electricity from renewable sources is ecologically and socially sound because it protects the climate and reduces the consumption of fossil, finite resources. In addition, it does not produce hazardous waste, such as radioactive waste from nuclear power plants.
When you buy green electricity, it doesn't mean that green electricity is actually coming out of the pipe. Every kilowatt hour generated flows into an electricity lake, from which it is then redistributed to end customers. In other words, everyone gets the same physical electricity. But every single green electricity customer helps to make the electricity lake ever greener.
However, green electricity does not automatically promote the energy transition. For this, additional investments must be made in the expansion of renewable energies. This is guaranteed by tariffs that carry the Green Electricity label.
The numerous green power products available on the energy market differ significantly from one another.
The energy markets cannot prevent energy providers from relabeling their nuclear and coal-fired power as "green power" with the help of additionally purchased certificates of origin. The reason is that the certificates can be traded independently of the actual quantities of electricity. Under this model, an energy supplier can supply its green electricity customers with electricity from conventional power plants. For this electricity, the utility buys an equivalent amount of (very cheap) guarantees of origin and can then re-declare its electricity as green electricity. The electricity purchased for customers and the guarantees of origin therefore do not come from one and the same power plant.
In addition, the decisive point in a green electricity tariff is whether or not the consumers provide an additional environmental benefit with their purchase decision. An additional environmental benefit arises when the purchase of green electricity promotes the nature-friendly expansion of renewable energies. However, this is not the case with many green electricity offers.
If, for example, an energy supplier only purchases electricity from old hydroelectric power plants for its green electricity customers, then an already existing amount of green electricity is only diverted to a certain group of consumers. The consumers who previously received the hydroelectric power may now (unknowingly) be supplied with nuclear power because they do not specifically ask for green power. The bottom line is that everything remains the same, new plants are not built, and the share of green electricity in the European electricity mix is no higher than before. Such supposedly "green" tariffs promise an additional environmental benefit that cannot be proven. In terms of this promise, they are deceptive packages.
The Green Electricity Label identifies for consumers the purchase of 100% genuine green electricity as well as guaranteed investments in renewable energies and innovative energy transition projects.
The guaranteed investments in the nature-compatible expansion of renewable energies are an essential distinguishing feature compared to many other green electricity labels and green electricity tariffs, where customers only receive electricity from already existing green power plants. This is because merely shifting "green" electricity quantities back and forth does not result in any additional environmental benefit.
Green electricity tariffs for private customers require an investment of at least 0.5 cents per kilowatt hour. Many energy providers also invest more than 0.5 cents per kilowatt hour.
If you want to compare an electricity tariff via the tariff portal of the environmental associations, the subsidy component and thus your energy transition contribution will be displayed for the respective energy provider.
For commercial customers, the subsidy is lower due to the higher consumption values: it ranges from 0.1 cents to 0.4 cents per kilowatt hour.
Yes. Green electricity tariffs do not necessarily have to bear a label. Certification by the Green Electricity Label or other seals of approval is voluntary. There are electricity providers who do not have their tariffs independently verified at all. Here, consumers must decide for themselves how credible the offer is.
On the one hand, it is not the energy providers that are certified, but only the individual tariffs. Secondly, the certification of green electricity tariffs with the Green Electricity Label is voluntary. Suppliers can decide for themselves whether they wish to have their products certified according to our criteria. Therefore, we cannot make any statement about the quality of your non-certified green electricity tariff. You can find more information about our certification here.
We recommend the tariff portal of the environmental associations for switching energy providers.Here you'll find only green electricity-certified green electricity rates. When changing tariffs, you don't have to be afraid that the lights will go out at some point. The power supply is guaranteed by law - even when you switch providers. By switching, you can save energy costs, protect the environment and promote the energy transition. Here you will find helpful information on switching.
What you should know about biogas
Green Gas Label
Frequently asked questions
With Green Gas-certified tariffs, guaranteed investments flow into the expansion of renewable energies.
The level of investment is determined by a fixed amount per kilowatt hour consumed. Thus, your gas purchase indirectly influences the investments in the energy transition. The areas of support include the mobility transition, energy infrastructure, energy efficiency, and other projects that serve the energy transition, such as nature conservation, development cooperation, and education.
You can find the whole range in the criteria catalog for the Green Gas Label.
Find out which suppliers offer gas tariffs with the Green Gas labelor contact your supplier and ask about a biogas tariff with the Green Gas label. Select a labeled tariff and sign the supply contract of the new supplier. The rest is similar to the electricity switch: The new gas supplier cancels the old contract for you at the next possible date and initiates everything else. Until the transfer, the local or previous supplier is obliged to maintain the gas supply. This means that there will be no interruption in supply.
You can find gas tariffs with the Green Gas label here.
Note: Individual, named biogas tariffs are always certified, not the supplier itself.
The Green Gas Label is the only biogas quality label supported by leading civil society organizations. The supporting associations can be found here.
Through the work of the carrier associations in the board of directors and general meeting, they play a major role in shaping the certification to this day. Changes in the label's criteria, for example, must be approved by all the sponsoring associations.
The Green Gas Label is awarded by Grüner Strom Label e.V., which has been awarding the Green Electricity Label for green electricity tariffs since 1998.
Biogas in general
Biogas is produced by the bacterial decomposition of animal or plant substances in a biogas plant. These substances can be, for example, biogenic residues, such as the waste from the organic waste garbage can or liquid manure from agriculture. The fermentation of these substances produces, among other things, biomethane. The resulting biomethane can be used as an energy source in the same way as natural gas and can be fed into the natural gas grid, for example. There are various ways to produce biogas and not all variants are ecologically sustainable.
Substrates, also called feedstocks, are the biogenic raw materials that are introduced into a biogas plant to produce gas. Here, a rough distinction can be made between three classes:
- Biogenic residues (e.g. biowaste from the organic waste garbage can, plant residues, residues from agriculture such as harvest and slaughter waste, liquid manure, slurry and dung).
- Sewage sludge and sewage gases from wastewater treatment plants, industrial processes, or commercial production (e.g., from biogenic residues in paper recycling).
- Renewable raw materials or energy crops (e.g., corn or through-grown silphia).
The abbreviation NawaRo stands for the term renewable raw materials.
This refers to plants or plant components that originate from agricultural production and are not used as food or feed, but are used materially or energetically, e.g. for the production of biogas.
Sewage gas is a methane-containing gas produced during wastewater treatment by the digestion of sewage sludge. Sewage gas contains between 45 and 70 percent methane by volume.
As the name suggests, this is gas that is produced artificially. Gas is produced from water in an electricity-intensive process called electrolysis. This concept is called power-to-gas. In this context, people often talk about green hydrogen. Green' here means that hydrogen is produced with the help of green electricity.
A biogas plant usually consists of a fermentation tank with gas storage, the so-called fermenter, as well as a preliminary pit, a secondary fermenter and fermentation residue storage.
The fermenter, the core of a biogas plant, is filled with the substrates (e.g. NawaRo and liquid manure from the preliminary pit). In the fermenter, the actual biogas formation takes place under exclusion of sunlight and oxygen. Depending on the initial substrate, biogas can be produced by wet or dry fermentation (= digestion). In wet fermentation, a high water content in the fermentation substrate makes the mass stirrable and flowable. Dry fermentation or solid-state fermentation is carried out with stackable organic biomass without mixing. However, it is rather rare in Germany.
The substrate is heated to around 35 to 55 degrees Celsius to accelerate the methane formation process. On average, the substrate remains in a fermenter for 30 days before degassing in the secondary fermenter for another month. The resulting biogas consists of 50 to 70 percent methane, plus carbon dioxide, hydrogen and hydrogen sulfide.
Depending on the end use (on-site power generation, feeding into the natural gas grid, etc.), the biogas is further upgraded. The remaining substrate mixture from the fermenter (digestate) is then reused by farmers as high-quality fertilizer for their fields.
The production of biogas is renewable, largely CO₂-neutral, can be decentralized and occurs independently of limited fossil energy sources. This makes it more environmentally friendly than conventional energy from large-scale power plants. However, biogas production can take place in very different ways from an ecological point of view.
To guarantee a sustainable energy supply, biogas must be produced in an environmentally compatible manner. This includes both the raw materials used and their processing, as well as the logistics of the substrates and the fermentation residues.
The energetic and material use of (anyway accumulating) organic residual and waste materials is part of a sustainable use of resources.
Only certain feedstocks may be used for biogas with the Green Gas label:
- Biogenic residues (e.g. biowaste from the organic waste garbage can, plant residues, residues from agriculture such as harvest and slaughter waste, liquid manure, slurry and dung).
- Sewage sludge and sewage gases from municipal wastewater treatment plants, industrial processes, or commercial production (e.g., from biogenic residues in paper recycling).
- Renewable raw materials (e.g. maize or through-grown silphia), but only if there is an ecologically sustainable operator concept that is conducive to the energy transition.
