We are constantly asking ourselves how we can operate a better business with a smaller impact on the world. As such we are delighted to announce, as of May 2019, we have offset all our carbon emissions at Flora & Fauna. We made the decision quite some time ago and we have spent time finding the right partner to do this with.
What Exactly Have We Done?
We are proudly working with Greenfleet to offset the carbon emissions that are produced when we operate our business; that includes the electricity in our warehouse, office, internal operations, any internal travel, your parcel delivery and even our team's cars. As a business we've worked hard to reduce our emissions and the next step is to offset the remainder of our emissions to reduce our footprint.
Greenfleet plant biodiverse native forests in Australia on our behalf. These forests capture greenhouse gas emissions and help protect our planet against the impacts of climate change.
When you now receive your parcel you'll know the carbon produced to get it to you has been offset. We have sent over 280,000 parcels and all have been offset so every parcel ever sent.
Who are Greenfleet
Greenfleet is a not for profit environmental organisation that has been working hard on climate change for over 20 years. They have a mission to protect our climate by restoring our forests. Greenfleet have planted over 9.2 million trees across 500 biodiverse forests in Australia and New Zealand. Not only do the forests help capture carbon but they also help to restore habitat for native wildlife, something which is crucial for the future of our planet.
Why Greenfleet?
They plant trees here in Australia and they manage the projects. Many organisations act as brokers selling credits for projects overseas that are usually a lot cheaper than Australia. We want as much money to go to replanting our forests and we think it's really important to support our local area. You can see where Greenfleet plant forests here. We were lucky enough to plant some trees with them in Kurnell in May 2019.
Are we Carbon Neutral?
In Australia you can’t technically say that an organisation, product, service or event is “carbon neutral” unless you have undertaken formal auditing, reporting and certification through the Australian Government’s Carbon Neutral program so we don't say we are as we haven't gone through that program.
Is There Anything I Can Do?
Something that we discovered when doing the audit on our emissions is the amount of carbon that air travel produces vs road travel. It emits almost 10x the amount of carbon so avoiding air travel is a huge win for the planet. And there are plenty of other things to do too.
So a few thoughts....
1) Select standard shipping, instead of express, which emits much less carbon
2) Can you avoid that business trip and skype instead
3) Take public transfer or car-pool
4) If you can walk instead of driving do that every now and again - great for your health too!
5) Insulate your home, use curtains, and only heat or cool the areas you are using
And lots more ideas here.
Read all about Greenfleet.
