Why Swiss Made Direct Became Climate Neutral?

From this month, July 2020, Swiss Made Direct became climate neutral! It is pretty huge news for us as an online store that cares about the climate and environment. We know that this term “climate neutrality” might confuse you in the beginning, although you probably have a clue.

In today’s world, it’s more important than ever to be environmentally-friendly and be aware of acts that might affect our planet and its climate. Almost every country in the world can feel the effects of climate change. For instance, extreme weather events, such as storms or heavy rainfall and increasing pest infestation, can endanger one country’s ecosystem. But, the term “climate neutrality” that we want to discuss about, means much more than that.

So, let’s break this term down into super small detail, so we could then understand how Swiss Made Direct became the part of this beautiful story.

What climate neutral stands for?

Companies, products, and processes can call themselves “climate neutral” only if they support international carbon offset projects. Also, it means that carbon emissions, in that case, are calculated and offset.

Besides reduction and avoidance, offsetting carbon emissions is crucial towards holistic climate protection, which is the ultimate goal of an environmentally-friendly society.

The distribution of greenhouse gases, such as CO2, in the atmosphere, is even. Their concentration is the same all over the world. So, it is irrelevant, for global greenhouse gas concentration and effect, where we have emissions on Earth. Therefore, emissions that we can’t avoid locally can be offset by carbon offset projects at another location.

What is a carbon offset project?

Carbon offset projects make a decisive contribution to fighting global warming. How? By demonstrably saving greenhouse gases. These projects can take the form of forest conservation, reforestation, or the development of renewable energy. Besides, carbon offset projects promote sustainable development in the project countries. For example, it happens by improving access to clean drinking water, expanding local infrastructure, creating jobs, or preserving biodiversity.

The UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a global benchmark for measuring such positive effects. They range from promoting education, fighting poverty, and hunger, and creating jobs to implementing clean and affordable energy. Each carbon offset project contributes to several of these goals. Sometimes the additional effect is so significant that the core projects are actually development projects that fight global warming as a supplemental effect and not vice versa.

The carbon offset project is a starting point of becoming climate neutral.

What are the criteria for a project to deserve carbon offset certification?

Carbon offset projects must satisfy international criteria. It means that projects need to follow strict standards – “Gold Standard” and “Verified Carbon Standard.”

Such an approach ensures and regularly confirms the climate protection effect of the projects. One of the essential requirements is that the projects are additional climate protection measures and that the contribution to carbon reduction in the atmosphere is measurable. It is guaranteed that the carbon emissions saved will only be used once to offset carbon emissions since the corresponding emission certificates are retired.

This is the mandatory criteria:

1. Additionality – Only projects that depend on additional financial resources can become carbon offset projects. It means that the project must rely on revenue from emissions trading to finance itself and must be able to prove this need.
2. Exclusion of double-counting – A project can count carbon savings only once. The project developer must prove it.
3. Permanence – Emission savings must be permanent. This criterion is particularly crucial for afforestation and forest conservation project.
4. Regular review by independent third parties – The third party, such as TUV, PwC, or SGS, has to review every carbon offset project at regular intervals.

Climate neutral story will be continued

Now, after all this information (which hopefully didn’t confuse you), you might wonder what is the Swiss Made Direct’s part in the climate neutrality. We’ll reveal it to you on Monday!

Stay tuned…