7 Keys to Offsetting your Retail Boxes
If you have decided to offset your retail boxes, then you already have started your journey to sustainability and green business. If you are here to learn about how you can do it, then you have come to the right place. This article will take you through the top seven keys that can help you achieve your goal. To learn about them, continue reading!
1. First Minimize and Eliminate
First thing first, you need to take a more in-depth look into every aspect of your business and determine what necessary steps you can take to reduce the negative effect your business is having on the environment. This has to be your number one step, and once you have discovered all areas for emissions reductions, offset those emissions that cannot be reduced. If you feel during this entire process that you require a consultancy, then consider working with them to quantify all your emissions and aim hotspots for modification accurately. After you’ve identified all the areas and done everything you possibly can quantify the emissions you will require to offset.
2. Rely only on Certified Standards
Once you have quantified the emissions to offset, the next important step is to recognize the particular businesses you’ll work with and the right venture you want to support for offsetting. While you are hunting for an offsetting partner, you will come across hundreds of retailers who will give tons of offers. However, you need to be extremely careful when you are choosing projects that you will be working with because you’ll find many ambiguous ones, even among the most established sellers. Therefore, you should work with only those packaging manufacturers that are certified by recognized standards. It is significant to know that there are different standards for numerous topics and regions. These certification standards include the Gold Standard, Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard, Vivo or The Climate, and Community and Biodiversity Association (CCBA).
3. The Additionality Principle
You must be wondering what this “The Adittionality Principle,” is. Here is your answer; it is a concept that interrogates if the emissions reductions would have happened without the project’s rollout or not. What you need to do is to opt for a project that necessitates carbon offsetting to be real, quantifiable, verifiable, and additional. One thing you should also consider while choosing a project is to pick project partners that recompense for the emissions if a project fails to be added in the future.
4. Be Cautious of Forestry Offsetting
There is no denying that projects for protecting forests are an efficient way to reduce GHG emissions, but tree-planting offsets should be analyzed as well, which can be equally valuable. We all are well aware of the fact that trees don’t grow tall within a few months. They take decades to reach maturity to sequester CO2. Besides, there is always a suspicion in the permanence of such forests. It is probably because we cannot guarantee that the trees will not release carbon through the fire, climatic changes, disease, natural decay, or harvesting. The risk involves in tree planting project is it introduces rapidly-growing invasive species and monocultures to cut costs. As a result, damage can cause to forests and a decline in biodiversity. If you are thinking of making custom retail boxes from cardboard material, which is made from trees, this practice can be helpful for you. However, it comes with a lot of risks, as well. Lastly, forestry offsetting may include uncertainty, deviation, and inconsistency in the calculation. But this option is very significant. If you are supporting a forestry project, then consider wetland, because they tend to have a high potential to sequester CO2 lasting.
5. Opt for Renewable Energy Projects
Another great option to reduce or avoid deforestation and fossil energy usage is by supporting renewable energy projects. In these projects, you can save current old-growth forests instead of planting new trees. The deforestation projects mainly undergo to produce firewood and charcoal for domestic use is the leading share of deforestation in the Global South. What you need to do is to seek clean technologies when manufacturing custom retail boxes with alternative bio-based fuels instead of using charcoal and firewood if any of your projects are still using them. This way, you are making sure that you are not cutting down existing forests. Therefore, you need to develop an accurate business model for incorporating renewable energy projects, which will benefit your business in the long-run.
6. Carry out Projects with Positive Economic and Social Impacts
Indeed your primary focus has to be ecological improvements, but keep in mind that sustainability consists of three things that are environmental, economic, and social. To achieve sustainability, you’ll have to work equally on all three of them. Choose projects that work to improve social impacts. Therefore, support renewable energy projects that will have positive social effects. Such projects can also generate economic growth by aiding poverty lessening via employment opportunities and training that will ultimately improve people’s livelihood.
7. Pay Attention to Rebound Effect
Always hunt for ways to really decrease and eliminate emissions. Most retailers make it easier to offset emissions. So what businesses do is they continue there usually procedures that are producing the same or even more emissions (a kind of rebound effect) when there is a possibility to do otherwise. You must have figured out by now that offsetting is not as easy as it seems, so support offsetting projects that fit your company well and partner will those who will help you calculate accurate results.
Conclusion
Your business goal is to achieve sustainability and this article was intended to make you understand how you can accomplish your goals. Offsetting your retail boxes’ carbon emission is the best decision you are making. For this, pay attention to these seven keys to offsetting your retail boxes.