Our Commitment to Being Climate Neutral
We are proud to announce that we are officially Climate Neutral Certified! We’ve been working with Climate Neutral for the past three months as they help us work toward carbon neutrality by measuring and offsetting our 2020 emissions and reducing our 2021 emissions. As of April 2021, we offset 100% of carbon emissions for our entire company, including the carbon footprint to make all products ordered on Made Trade as well as shipping your order to your door.
We offset our entire 2020 footprint by purchasing carbon credits to fund climate change solutions supporting three projects that are focused on conserving forest ecosystems in Indonesia, Brazil, and the USA. Timber production provides important incomes for local communities, but diversifying those local economies will help alleviate the pressure to cut down trees in some of the world’s most biodiverse forests and ecosystems.
About Each Project
The Katingan Peatland Restoration and Conservation Project restores and protects one of the largest remaining peat swamps, located in Indonesia. Protecting this peatland supports healthy soil and maintains clean water in the area, providing a healthy environment to the surrounding communities as well as for Proboscis Monkeys and endangered Orangutans. This project has hired approximately 400 workers above minimum wage to contribute to the local workforce and economic development, contributed around 950 micro-finance loans within the community, and helped launch initiatives in 34 nearby villages, including offering local health clinics and helping develop sanitation and healthy plumbing options.
The Envira Amazonia Project protects nearly half a million acres of endangered tropical rainforest near the city of Feijó in Brazil. By providing communities opportunities to commercialize the sale of açaí, rubber, and medicinal plants, this project works to create alternative income sources and reduce pressure to deforest the biodiverse rainforest. Currently, cattle ranching and subsistence agriculture are important sources of income for local communities, but by developing new, more sustainable forms of income, communities have a motivation and means to keep the ecosystem intact. This project also includes agricultural extension training for local landowners to learn how to harvest these crops in sustainable ways, helping to improve water and soil quality.
The Blandin Native American Hardwoods Conservation Project works to maintain ecosystem quality while continuing sustainable timber production in almost 200,000 acres of forest in Minnesota. This sustainable use of the forest supports more than 3,200 workers and hundreds of businesses while also protecting habitats for 47 species of birds, over 30 species of mammals, and trout. This project also supports a number of existing forest ecosystem benefits including water quality protection, wildlife habitat, and public recreation.
About Climate Neutral
Climate Neutral is an independent nonprofit organization on a mission to decrease global carbon emissions. The organization is creating the trusted consumer standard for corporate climate action. We’ve partnered with Climate Neutral to help us take stock of our carbon footprint, set goals for reducing our emissions moving forward, and purchase quality carbon credits to offset all emissions Made Trade incurs. When calculating the number of carbon credits to purchase, we evaluate the carbon it takes to make and deliver all products sold on Made Trade. This comprehensive measure — from cradle to customer — allows us to make a bigger impact on the environment by lessening our carbon footprint.
The Climate Neutral label has become the trusted authority for conscious consumers to recognize which brands are taking climate change seriously. This label makes it easier for consumers to know the brand they are purchasing from has measured and offset their entire carbon footprint and is making real change to reduce emissions moving forward. Made Trade is proud to be one of the 300+ brands that have committed to climate action through Climate Neutral.
Climate change isn’t just an environmental issue; it impacts issues surrounding human rights and justice. Sustainability is always at the forefront of our minds when growing Made Trade, and purchasing carbon credit to offset our carbon footprint is one way we invest in more sustainable business practices.
Our Carbon Neutrality Journey
This isn’t where our carbon neutrality journey started. Beginning October 1, 2019, carbon emissions from the transportation of any product on Made Trade have been 100% offset by the purchasing of carbon credits through our friends at Carbon Credit Capital.
Made Trade decided to fund the ADPML project in Pará, Brazil, dedicated to the preservation of the Amazon rainforest, as the Amazon is one of the world’s most important carbon sinks. This project educates 80 Indigenous families in land-use and stewardship in an area of the Brazilian rainforest that is being illegally logged to make room for cattle ranching. By teaching proper land management techniques, this project ensures 368,000 acres of virgin rainforest will never be logged for cattle ranching. This project expects to reduce over 22 million metric tonnes (or over 48.4 billion pounds) of greenhouse gas. ADPML contributes to six United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Good Health and Wellbeing, Affordable and Clean Energy, Reduced Inequalities, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Climate Action, and Life on Land.
Made Trade does not pass this cost of carbon offset shipping and returns onto our customers. Why? Because we believe making the planet a healthier place is our job — that’s why we created Made Trade in the first place. If we all make healthier choices in our lives, we all can help combat climate change.
This process took a lot of work from our team and the team at Climate Neutral, but the impact carbon elimination and sequestration can have on our planet is profound. We are excited to finalize our Climate Neutral certification in the near future, and the impact that will bring. Change always starts small and grows, and this is just one of the many things we’re doing at Made Trade to promote a healthier and more sustainable planet.
Thank you for shopping on Made Trade!
