Greenhouse gases are a major contributor to global climate change, perhaps one of the most serious issue facing humanity. Even, though our products use less energy to produce and manufacture, our products and operations still cause carbon emissions. To be a responsible company, we are committed to reducing our emissions, by using less energy and offseting any emissions which we cannot reduce.
Our Emissions
Our carbon footprint is the total carbon emissions emitted into the atmosphere in the process of running our business. This includes emissions in production of our raw materials, transportation, processing and manufacturing. It also includes emissions from inbound ocean freight transportation, the outbound trucking to get the products to you and as well our office and warehouse operations, commute and travel miles of our staff. It is the calculation of our total energy use and the resultant emissions of anything we do and is given below.
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Reducing our emissions
Companies and individuals can reduce their carbon footprint by
- Looking at ways to reduce their own emissions and
- Supporting carbon “offset” projects like planting trees or investing in renewable energy (solar, wind), which reduce carbon emissions.
Our office is powered by renewable energy (a combination of wind and solar) provided by Palo Alto Green. We also think of simple ways to reduce energy use by using space heaters, open windows, and desk lamps.
For those of our staff who live far away, we reimburse up to $250 per month to take public transportation. Being a compostable company, the kitchen is a big opportunity for us to save energy and we reuse, recycle and compost everything we can. Our toilets are low-flow to save water and we tabulate the energy and other resources we consume, such as water and paper.
Investing in People, Offsetting Carbon
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Forests are the lungs of the planet. Over the last 30 years, deforestation has become a serious global problem. An area of natural forest the size of a soccer field is cut down every 2 seconds. Whether caused by agriculture, industry or logging, deforestation results in the losses of habitat, wildlife biodiversity and topsoil.
| Did you know one quarter of the forest area lost in the last 10,000 years was destroyed in the last 30 years, according to the World Watch Institute? The current rate of plant and animal species extinction is around 1,000 times faster than it was in pre-human times. This rate is expected to increase to 10,000 times faster by 2050. |
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Trees are perfect for sequestering carbon through respiration. They are nature's own carbon-trapping facilities. Tree planting is a highly effective way to balance out carbon footprints since one tree planted in the tropics is typically credited with capturing an average of 50 pounds of atmospheric carbon per year.
In subsidizing the planting of trees for carbon credits, World Centric chose to work with grassroots organizations that, in addition to planting trees, are working to create self-sufficiency, income generation and environmental awareness for poor and needy people. World Centric’s total estimated carbon footprint is just over 4,273 tons of CO2 per year, or about 9.4 million pounds. That makes our offset goal 176824 trees. Over the lifetime of the trees, World Centric will have offset more carbon than it generated in 2009, ultimately making the company carbon negative over time. In offsetting our carbon footprint, we chose to work with two organizations: People for Progress in India (PPI) and Trees for the Future. |
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Our sustainable development partner PPI is helping us plant trees in the state of Karnataka in Southern India.
Their One Child/100 Trees project is a three-year activity that educates students and their families about biodiversity and trains them to plant trees. The project started in 2008 and has planted 17,360 trees from a wide variety of horticulture and agroforestry species, including mango, pomegranate, tamarind, neem and jackfruit. These trees are helping retain precious topsoil while supporting the biodiversity of the region. Our second partner is Trees for the Future. Specifically, World Centric contributed to their tree-planting project in the small African nation of Cameroon, nestled between Chad and Nigeria. |
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With the help of 8,000 volunteers, mostly from rural villages, Trees for the Future successfully planted more than 1.5 million trees in 2009. Trees for the Future then builds on its tree-planting work by promoting agroforestry practices and non-timber forest products to improve local living standards. Between these two projects, we have far exceeded our annual goal. The projects we have chosen to support are not Verified Projects. In our research into carbon offsets we have found that verification is a significant cost, which go to a third party instead of the project recipient and as well almost all verified projects are large-scale projects, which ultimately benefit large corporations, with very little benefits to the surrounding local communities. We prefer to support more sustainable endeavors. To us, that means investing in grassroots projects that benefit people as much as the planet. |
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World Centric high quality foodservice wares make it easy for you to be green and reduce your carbon emissions at the same time. In the home or at the office, let us be part of your efforts to reduce your own carbon footprint.
