Being in the business of making products, a concern for us is the carbon footprint of our value chain. From raw material extraction to shipping there are plenty of opportunities to lower our emissions. We have spent years measuring the emissions of our products through our Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) calculator and promoting the option for customers to compensate for emissions produced by purchasing carbon credits.
In our last fiscal year, only 21% of our clients purchased carbon credits, despite us changing the program to an “Opt-out” instead of “Opt-In” model. To achieve our SBTi and Net Zero commitments, we needed to go beyond the purchase of carbon credits and find investment solutions in our value chain to dramatically reduce our emissions. Many of the emissions reduction solutions in our scope 3 value chain include an increased cost to implement, for example converting a manufacturing site to solar energy.
Currently our carbon credits are invested in certified natural sequestration tools like mangrove forests, a great way to draw down carbon dioxide but not one that directly addresses emissions within our value chain.
In addition to natural sequestration, we need to invest in other solutions that mitigate or prevent emissions in the value chain of our business. Through the support of experts, we are planning direct investments in solutions that would lead to emissions reductions.
Utilizing recycled materials is proving to be a useful way for use to reduce emissions output. In the last year we have avoided 400 MT of CO2e through the use of recycled materials, compared to their conventional, virgin counterparts. We have also committed to creating a Climate Fund, a budget of 1% of our revenue will be allocated to spend on both compensation and mitigation.
The fund will be spent on integrating emissions reductions tools and resources within our value chain. In addition, for every product we make in the next year, we commit to purchasing carbon credits to compensate for the cradle-to-gate emissions. We aim to report further on how we have progressed with this fund in 12 months.
