World Centric prides itself not only in it’s provision of sustainable and compostable goods, but also in it’s commitment to operating sustainably. A key part of being a leading supplier of compostables in the industry is also recognizing that our every action in making compostables has a consequence. Global climate change is one of the most serious issues facing humanity, and we are doing our part to help contribute to the lowering of carbon emissions that come from the manufacturing of our product. While our products require less energy in production, we are still committed to reducing the emission of carbon throughout the entire life cycle of our compostable goods.

Our Emissions

Our carbon footprint is the sum of all carbon emissions emitted into the atmosphere in the process of making our compostable goods and running our sustainable business. This would include emissions from the production of our raw materials and manufacturing all the way to its transportation to your front door. It includes transportation, processing, inbound ocean freight transportation, outbound trucking, warehouse operations, and even our office footprint that includes the commute and travel of our staff.

Our Efforts

It is our belief that both individuals and companies can and should reduce their carbon footprint. It starts with looking at ways to reduce your own emissions, usually directly related to reducing energy consumption. We also believe in investing in renewable energy like solar and wind energy production in addition to carbon offsetting programs such as planting trees.

In fact, our office is powered by renewable energy (a combination of wind and solar) by Palo Alto Green. We are also conscious of our daily operations and simple ways that any individual can reduce energy use such as limiting centralized heating and using energy efficient space heaters, using spaces with natural light and using space lighting such as desk lamps as opposed to larger inefficient and high-energy lighting.

We also have a company wide incentive for using public transportation; World Centric reimburses up to $250 per month to any employee using public transportation. From our low flow environmentally friendly toilets to both our home composting unit and our compost waste bin where other compostable items go to a composting facility, we do our every effort to reduce, reuse, recycle, and compost.

Our Partnerships

For 2010, we are partnering with Rainforest Action Network (RAN) to address its 2010 carbon emissions, totaling 4810 tons, by supporting innovative initiatives that keep millions of tons of CO2 in the ground.  Through a $24,000 donation to RAN’s small grant programs Protect-an-Acre and Climate Action Fund, World Centric is investing directly in community-based organizations, Indigenous federations and small NGOs that are fighting to protect millions of acres of forest. Deforestation is estimated to be responsible for nearly fifteen per cent of global carbon emissions and the projects these grant programs support are aimed at stemming this forest loss while also sequestering carbon from the atmosphere through ecosystem restoration and reforestation.

Results from the grant include:

RAN’s Protect-an-Acre and Climate Action Fund programs also support:

 

World Centric, which has roots as a non-profit and eco-fair trade store early on, recognized that by partnering with other grassroots organizations, we could become carbon neutral and at the same time help other organization and people that are directly faced with problems of income generation and sustainable development.
In our endeavors for going carbon neutral, we focused on two things—the sequestering of carbon through tree planting and supporting projects with direct benefits to communities and people. The projects we have chosen to support are not Verified Projects. In our research into carbon offsetting programs, we found that verification is a significant cost that typically goes to third parties. Rather than support large corporations with large scale projects, we went small—we decided to work with grassroots organizations that directly work with people and communities that manage forests.

Trees are nature’s own carbon sinks and World Centric recognizes that deforestation plays a key role in global climate change. It is estimated that one tree in the tropics on average can sequester 50 pounds of atmospheric carbon dioxide per year. World Centric’s estimated total carbon footprint is just over 4,273 tons of carbon dioxide, or about 9.4 million pounds. It was our goal to offset this with 176,824 trees.

We looked to two organizations to help us with our goal: People for Progress(PPI) in India and Trees for the Future(TREES). Our sustainable development partner PPI is helping us plant trees in the state of Karnataka in Southern India. Sustainable farming, vocational training, skill training, providing basic amenities like clean drinking water, mentoring high risk children, and micro-finance loans are some of the areas that PPI also works on. PPI has planted 17,360 trees with a variety of species, supporting biodiversity and agroforestry since 2008. Their One Child/100 Trees project is a three-year activity that educates students and families about biodiversity in the process of helping plant the trees. Trees for the Future is helping us plant trees in the African nation of Cameroon. With the help of 8,000 volunteers in mostly rural villages, TREES has successfully planted more than 1.5 million trees in 2009. TREES works with rural farmers to develop sustainable land-use practices which are beneficial to the environment and improve the lives of the people involved. Farmers are planting trees to improve the soil and their crop yields, and protect the land against further erosions. Many farmers are developing income generating activities such as livestock raising, honey production, and fruit production.

We take great pride in the quality of our compostables, but we take an equal amount of pride supporting these grassroots organizations and communities that help us offset all our carbon.