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What It Means To Be Climate Neutral

September 12, 2019

Many modern businesses embody and emulate green initiatives and values. It is important that we help our customers understand what that means for us and how we put that into practice every day.

One way we do that is by being climate neutral. But what does it mean to be climate neutral and how can it positively impact the environment?

Let’s find out!

Regulating Carbon

Being climate-neutral has everything to do with carbon—the chemical element that exists in two main forms, diamond and graphite, and also mixes with other elements to make molecules that are the basic building blocks of humans, animals, plants, and the world around us. 

The famous carbon-based molecule, best known in climate change conversations is carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most important greenhouse gas emitted by humans and drastically impacts the environment. CO2 is the molecule that climate neutrality seeks to eliminate. 

When something is climate neutral, it doesn’t create greenhouse gasses. This means that all CO2 emissions are eliminated and no greenhouse gasses are produced in the process. In other words, climate neutrality means having no net carbon emissions.

How To Get Started

Achieving climate neutrality is not an easy feat. It involves an aggressive strategy to help get there starting with a big decrease in overall energy consumption. It is also important to assess the sources for energy that we use, quantifying their impact on CO2 emissions, and developing a repeatable process to measure these impacts every year. The last stage is taking proactive measures to offset unavoidable carbon emissions.  Ideally businesses never generate CO2 emissions from the start,  but from a pragmatic perspective that's not possible yet.  So the big decrease in energy consumption required for climate neutral organizations will most likely include investment in carbon reduction projects - in addition to the use of lower CO2 emitting energy sources like solar, wind, ocean/train transport, and electric vehicles.  

Being climate neutral is an important goal to reach - which leads to many businesses to alter their processes and protocols to help make it happen, just as we have done.  

When a business works toward being climate neutral, their CO2 emissions are reduced as much as possible and any remaining emissions are offset with climate protection measures. The primary goal of being climate neutral is doing no net harm to the planet.  

Steps Toward Sustainability

Being climate neutral is just one element of sustainability.  How an organization works with its employees and partners, how production partners pay and treat their employees and impact the community, the type of materials used and their impact on the environment, how recycling and closed loop supply chains with zero waste are being developed - are all part of being sustainable.  Climate neutral status is just one box to check on the sustainability spectrum. 

Customers are looking for the people they do business with to have a philosophy of sustainability. For an organization to become climate neutral, it has to start out as both a goal and a priority. By re framing the narrative in this light, it is easier to start making the necessary changes to get started. It is important for us that we understand our carbon footprint, and the impact our business is making on the environment. That is why we take great measures to ensure that our products and how they are made respect the people who make them and the environment they interact with. 

Being climate neutral is a wonderful part of our mission. We seek to keep our planet healthy and inspire people to explore its many wonders for years to come.





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