Our Activities and the Environment
THE ENVIRONMENT
Carbon offsetting
We are a UK based business and we want to be as environmentally friendly as possible, but as a business which specialises in cutlery, it’s inevitable that a large percentage of our stock is going to be produced overseas. We love buying from UK makers, it makes sense on many levels and we do so wherever we can, but when it comes to knife making, if we want our shop to represent the best that the world has to offer, then there are certain makers, companies & countries that are an absolute must when sourcing products.
So, we've accepted the fact that if we want to offer our customers a carefully curated range of product from some of the best makers in the world, we are going to have to air freight them to our home base the UK.
With this firmly in mind we set about looking at what we could do to help ease this environmental burden (did you know that transportation is one of the worlds biggest polluters? making up 24% of the worlds total CO2 emissions in 2016!) and offset the CO2 from our business activities.
To help us with this task we called upon Carbon Jacked, a UK based business who specialise in the offsetting of CO2.
From their website
“What is Carbon offsetting?
Carbon offsetting is defined by the Oxford dictionary as: the action or process of compensating for carbon dioxide emissions arising from industrial or other human activity, by participating in schemes designed to make equivalent reductions of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”
Why?
“Carbon offsetting is an important and valuable part of tackling the climate emergency.
The projects we partner with have tangible benefits. They reduce CO2 from the atmosphere and have a positive social impact by contributing to a wide range of UN Sustainable Development Goals, such as eliminating poverty, providing quality education, and creating sustainable jobs and economic growth to name but a few.
We believe carbon offsetting is a practical and realistic way for all of us to start combating climate change. If we’re going to meet the challenge of the climate emergency, it’s crucial individuals start to understand their carbon footprint and take action.
But carbon offsetting is only one part of the picture. Reductions in emissions and technological solutions will also play a key part in tackling the climate emergency.”
With the help of Carbon Jacked and an investment from us we are thrilled to be able to offset the carbon produced in our business. In 2022 we underwent a thorough audit to assess the carbon we create, including the power for our shop, the water we use, the packaging we purchase and the transportation of our products and then offset this buy investing in carbon credits which will then go towards supporting a carbon positive project.
Our offsetting comes by way of support for the Nam Hong Hydropower project in Vietnam, a project which not only reduces the worlds CO2 imprint by 35,000 tonnes each year but is also responsible for the creation on 41 jobs locally (with medical insurance), vast improvements to infrastructure and the generation of 62,000 MWh of clean energy each year.
For more information about what Carbon Jacked do and how you can help fight the worlds CO2 problem yourself, head to their website.
