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If climate change and corporate responsibility are important issues for you, a new initiative called Climate Neutral Certified could help you make more responsible shopping decisions … and help a bit on saving the planet.
Co-founded by the outdoor gear brand BioLite and the everyday carry brand Peak Design — both companies featured frequently on InsideHook — Climate Neutral is an independently-run certification program that verifies if a company has offset all the carbon generated by the manufacture and delivery of its products.
“Achieving carbon neutrality is faster, cheaper, and easier than the common perception,” notes BioLite CEO Jonathan Cedar. “Our friends at Peak Design reached a similar conclusion, asking ‘why aren’t more companies doing this?’ That was the impetus for Climate Neutral: to simplify the footprinting process, catalyze businesses to take responsibility for the carbon they emit, and demand that this is the new low bar for corporate responsibility.”
If you’re shopping, look for a “Climate Neutral Certified” badge, which is currently available on three brands (the two co-founding companies and the athleisure retailer mattress company Avocado), with up to 30 brands signed on for 2019, with offsets starting in 2020. Those companies include Allbirds, Haven, Kammok, Nomad, Rumpl and Sunski.
If you’re wondering how much this is going to cost you as a consumer … well, not much. If Climate Neutral’s math holds up, the average cost to offset a $225 running shoe would be $0.12, and $81 for an electric SUV that costs $60,000.
To participate, companies either need to hire an external firm to conduct a carbon footprint analysis or, starting in 2020, using a modeling tool provided by Climate Neutral. Once a footprint is verified, brands create a measurable action plan and purchase carbon credits for an amount equal or greater than their total emissions.
You can find a breakdown of the methodology here.
UPDATE: The article was changed on 9/25 to note that the Avocado that’s part of Climate Neutral is the mattress company, not the athleisure brand.
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