Our Journey to Carbon Neutrality – Part 3

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In recent posts, we have walked through why and how we calculated our carbon emissions. When it came to making a decision how to end 2021 as a carbon neutral company, we decided to buy the offset required to absorb our carbon footprint. Not a perfect solution, but the best we could do to make an immediate impact.

Deciding on the Offset

During some online research, we learned about Pachama which runs an online marketplace for carbon offsets. They have an interesting approach by combining machine learning with satellite and airborne observations to measure carbon captured in forests. 

So, how did we choose to work with Pachama? In reviewing various options, we saw that two of our partners Shopify and Microsoft both purchase offsets from Pachama. Our due diligence concluded the same thing that these larger organizations did, that Pachama was doing good work with great transparency and ethics. 

With those large companies already working with Pachama, that gave us comfort that they were credible as those companies probably spent more resources and time doing the review of offset options than a smaller company like us. Pachama was also simple to use and easy to work with. Pachama selected the NIHT project in Papua New Guinea as our carbon offset and we purchased 200 Mt to ensure we were carbon neutral (well actually carbon negative).

An initial step in our carbon emission strategy

After the 200Mt offset purchase, we became a carbon neutral company in 2021 – a step on our journey to become better stewards of our world. We are a small business and understand that the process to become carbon neutral is less complex than larger corporations. Nonetheless, we are proud of this important milestone.

This was a starting point – the basic step to do our part. We will be reviewing a number of the areas we have touched on to continue to improve our carbon footprint. At the same time, we have begin on the next journey – helping companies to build high performing, cost effective, and carbon minimized solutions to meet their business strategy. 

In our last post in this carbon neutral series, we will review some of our new employee incentive programs that help team members reduce their own carbon footprints. The goal is not only to help the environment as a team, but to attract/retain great talent that care about the world around us.  

Read Part 4

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