Ecologi, Trees and Us
Hello readers, thanks for stopping here, it’s really great that you have.
In 2021 we went through the rigorous but enlightening process of discovering our 2020 carbon footprint. Turning many spindles, bobbins and gathering lots of data, we have evaluated our carbon footprint and discovered where our business wins and loses when it comes to output.
We now proudly own an in-depth report from our friends at Be Zero which holds gallons of useful information, including our operational carbon footprint (our carbon emissions for the things we do in the office, the warehouse, our commute and any other travel).
We also uncovered the carbon emissions for the entire supply chain for our products.
Understanding our carbon emissions is super important to us. Not only is carbon is the main cause of human-induced climate change, but it also contributes to urban air pollution, leads to toxic acid rain, adds to coastal and ocean acidification, and it worsens the melting of glaciers and polar ice caps in turn affecting the temperature of our planet. Most carbon emissions come from burning fossil fuels for electricity and transportation, although industrial processes and forestry also contribute heavily.
By discovering our carbon emissions, we can take steps to reduce them, influence reduction and can invest in projects to offset as we go.
Following lots of reading, investigation, sleeping on it, fact hunting and a bit of soul searching too we have made a few choices on how we can impact our carbon footprint on our journey to being a net zero business.
Achieving that in itself is a major milestone for us, here are some of our focuses for the near future as a result:
- reducing our carbon emissions up and down our supply chain.
- offsetting our emissions.
- working out how we can re-use our products that have reached the end of their normal life cycle.
- incorporating recycled elements into our products.
- reducing waste in our production process and our operations.
- reviewing our business operations.
We have also decided to get into bed with Ecologi to help us to offset our carbon emissions. They know what’s what when it comes to this, and we feel assured that the projects that they invest in are trusted and beneficial for our planet. They have a mission to reduce 50% of global CO2 emissions by 2040 and responsibly plant billions of trees every year. We're happy to go along with this and support them, this in turn balances our output.
Through Ecologi we have invested in projects to offset the carbon emissions from our business operations for the whole of 2020 which totalled just under 40 tonnes of carbon.
The 2 projects that we have invested in are:
And, as a starting point we have also funded the planting of 100 trees all over the globe in:
- 45: Madagascar
- 18: Kenya
- 16: Mozambique
- 9: Uganda
We know that 2020 was an absolutely bonkers year for us, our sales went a little bit crazy because everyone stayed at home and made them beautiful. Our sales in 2021 were 40% greater than in our sales in 2020 and remained pretty much the same in 2022.
Other things that were also different in 2021 and 2022 compared to 2020 were that we:
- worked from home much more than we are now.
- travelled a little bit more on aeroplanes visiting our factories.
- opened up another office.
started 2020 with 11 employees and finished 2021 with 28 employees.
This year we have decided to invest our money in growing our business rather than conducting another LCA. Yet we still wanted to ensure we did the right thing when it comes to our operational emissions and so, whilst we can’t get a completely accurate picture of our operational carbon emissions, we’ve looked at how much we’ve grown as a percentage of sales and applied that percentage increase to our operational footprint.
Using those numbers as a basis we are offsetting more carbon in Renewable Energy Projects through our partnership with Ecologi (we also purchased a few more trees whilst we were there) consequently we’ve invested in supporting renewable energy projects to offset our business operation emissions for 2021 in Sri Lanka through small-scale onshore wind power.
Small scale wind project in Sri Lanka | Ecologi
We also invested in 30 more trees supporting reforestation in Mussuquelane, Mozambique.
Reforestation in Mussuquelane, Mozambique | Ecologi
By funding these projects, we are also supporting a number of goals for our planet which have been identified through the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
We realise that there’s an awful lot to do but, as we take little steps, we work towards our goal of being a business that makes a positive impact on people and the planet, as well as being one that sells beautiful bed linen.
Thanks so much for reading folks. We look forward to sharing our journey onwards to a better carbon place with you too.
Caroline (Head of trees, carbon offsetting and all of the good things)
