Offsetting Carbon Emissions
The shipping industry accounts for about 13% of the carbon emissions produced world wide, and while a good portion of that is maritime shipping (we use air and land shipping), any carbon emission is too much. As a sustainable company, it is our mission to have the smallest impact possible while running our business and inspire change for the fashion industry as a whole. As an e-commerce store, it is inevitable that we create carbon emissions during the shipping process so we have been looking for solutions to minimize or even negate that impact. We are super excited to announce that we have partnered with Shopify to start offsetting these emissions to help clean the air not only for you and me, but the entire planet. Here are some commonly asked questions:
What are Carbon Emissions?
Carbon Dioxide is the worlds most common greenhouse gas emitted by human activities. The main human activity that is creating this CO2 is combustions of fossil fuels such as gas and oil burned during transportation and electricity consumption. These gases are released into the atmosphere and can take thousands of years to dissipate. These gases impact our air quality, our atmosphere, our planets temperature changes and much more.
What are Carbon Offsets?
Trees, plants, and microorganisms absorb a lot of the natural CO2 created by the earth and have been looked at as part of the solution of decreasing the carbon in the atmosphere. Carbon offsets start by calculating out how many carbon emissions you are producing and working with offset projects to produce or protect something that absorbs carbon (such as planting a tree that will absorb the amount of carbon that you are producing or protecting it from deforestation). In this way, carbon offsetting is making it so that companies aren't increasing the amount of carbon dioxide currently in the atmosphere. While this isn't a perfect solution to the problem, it is a necessary tool for making the problem a little bit better before we have a solution to the overall issue of creating too much carbon dioxide.
What offset programs are you working with?
All normal purchases from our Sundaze Bikinis website donates a portion of the profit to the Jari Pará Forest Conservation Project This project helps protect a portion of the Amazon rainforest that is about the size of Delaware and helps reduce carbon emissions by increasing the size of this forest. It is estimated that 20% of the worlds emissions are absorbed by the Amazon forest, yet there is also a huge issue in this area with illegal timber harvesting and deforestation. These resources help protect these forests from illegal harvesters.
All purchases using the shop app additionally donates a portion of the profits to WeForest. WeForest is a program dedicated to replanting mangrove forests that used to exist on the shorelines of Senegal. One Mangrove plant can absorb up to 308kg of CO2 across its lifetime. Shopify and the shop app are working to plant 4.6 million mangrove trees over the next year. These trees will not only absorb additional CO2 but they also help recreate ecosystems for fish, shellfish, and turtles that used to thrive there.
How much has been offset so far?
We just started the offset program this month (October 2021) so we don't have all our data in so far. We hope to update this page January 2022 and share with you all of the trees that have been saved. Across the Shopify platform here are the amount of emissions that have been offset by the offset app so far.
The Future:
Climate change has become a huge issue and we all need to be making big changes in how we are living to help protect and heal our planet from the destruction we have been causing. We have estimated that each package shipped creates about 1kg of carbon emissions that are released into the atmosphere. We are excited to be on the forefront of pushing into sustainable projects that help protect and heal our planet. In 2022 we are hoping to dive deeper into projects that help change the way industry is done so that we are not creating these carbon emissions in the first place. Thank you so much for supporting us and our journey towards a more sustainable future.
Have more questions? Feel free to email us at Info@sundazebikinis.com and we will be happy to answer them :)
Here are some awesome links to more information:
https://www.spglobal.com/esg/insights/your-climate-change-goals-may-have-a-maritime-shipping-problem
https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases
https://www.shopify.com/blog/carbon-offsets
https://shop.app/help/carbon-offsets#OffsetCarbonByPlantingTrees