Gröner Group provides practical help for the homeless

The Berlin-based Gröner Group, a nationwide developer of future-oriented sustainable residential and commercial real estate, supported homeless initiatives at the Group's locations with food and donations in kind worth around 30,000 euros during the onset of winter last week.

Items such as sleeping bags and mats, winter boots and thermal underwear were donated after establishing what was needed in each specific area. At several sites, company employees also helped distribute the goods.

“I’m overjoyed to witness the initiative shown by my teams and how quickly everything got done,” said company founder and Managing Director Christoph Gröner, who has supported charitable initiatives helping homeless children for many years. “Thanks to these contacts, we’ve now been able to respond very quickly with help. Rather than just handing out money, we felt it was important to respond directly to people’s needs. When temperatures drop well below zero, you have to move urgently.” It matters to Christoph Gröner that this kind of help is not just a one-off, but that long-term partnerships develop between the Gröner Group and the various organisations. The entrepreneur is firmly convinced, “It is our social duty to help our fellow human beings, not just in times of crisis but whenever we have the means to do so.” Accordingly, the Gröner Group will again provide winter aid in the future whenever icy weather persists.

Sleeping mats and bags, thermal underwear, winter boots and warm clothing were bought and delivered to organisations in Frankfurt, Leipzig, Berlin, Karlsruhe, Cologne, Hamburg and Munich without delay or red tape. Recipients included the Bahnhofsmission railway outreach organisation in Frankfurt and Munich, homeless shelters for women and men in Leipzig, Streetwork Stations run by the Offroad Kids foundation in Hamburg and Berlin, the AWO worker welfare charity in Karlsruhe, CaFée mit Herz in the St. Pauli district of Hamburg and Helping Hands e. V. in Zollstock, Cologne.

This is not the first relief programme Christoph Gröner and his company have been involved in. The Gröner Group provided support to the Leipziger Tafel food bank last year to allow it to continue its work. In total, the group donated more than one million euros to social, charitable and cultural projects in 2020. Alongside this, Christoph Gröner has been engaged for many years, both privately and through his companies, in supporting a number of sports clubs, research projects (Barrett Initiative e. V.) and cultural initiatives (International Youth Orchestra Academy – IJOA) across Germany in various ways. His top priority in all of this has been and remains child and youth services. It has always been his conviction that entrepreneurs carry social responsibility – especially for children and young people.

In February 2020, Christoph Gröner joined forces with Prof. Rüdiger Grube and other entrepreneurs to establish the Wirtschaft kann Kinder e. V. non-profit, which helps disadvantaged children and their families. One of the charity’s main objectives is to promote equality of opportunity for all children in Germany, regardless of where they grow up or the conditions in which they live. A child’s family background and financial situation still have a great impact on their opportunities in life. This is something that needs to be rectified – by committed entrepreneurs working together as human beings and citizens as well as businesspeople to invest in Germany’s future, with children’s interests at heart.

About the Gröner Group

Gröner Group GmbH draws on more than 25 years of experience to give shape to forward-thinking property developments. The group’s emphasis is on creating affordable housing and living spaces. Alongside the digital reorganisation of the construction and property industry using BIM and its sister field of prefabrication, the company is committed to achieving as neutral a carbon footprint as possible.

Through its subsidiary CG Elementum AG, the Gröner Group has access to a company-owned service provider for sustainable and digital construction. CG Elementum provides a full range of services in new construction, conversions and the renovation of old and listed buildings for the group’s in-house projects and to third-party companies.

The Gröner Group has its headquarters in Berlin. With seven branch offices and around 400 employees, the company is forging ahead with more than 80 project developments throughout Germany with an overall development volume of around five billion euros.