What’s up with carbon emissions?

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Carbon, CO2 and greenhouse gasses. It’s only a small step from these words to the big problem we’re facing; global climate change. World leaders have agreed to limit global temperature rise below 2ºC, but we’re already reaching a 1ºC rise. The time of talking is over! It is time for action! We’ll tell you all about how we try to be part of the solution.

CLIMATE CHANGE 101

We’re burning loads of fossil fuels every day, putting a lot of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. These gasses protect us from the never-ending cold universe we’re floating in and keep in the oxygen we need to breathe. When too many greenhouse gasses are in the air, they retain more heat than needed. This leads to higher temperatures, melting ice, rising sea levels, floods, extreme weather and more apocalyptic scenarios you’ve seen in movies.

To stop climate change, we just need to stop using fossil fuels. Simple solution, right? The only problem is that fossil fuels are entwined throughout our daily life. From the way we travel, trucks delivering packages and plastic packaging, to what we produce and even what we eat, all because of fossil oil. Here in the West, we are the biggest troublemakers, emitting the bulk of carbon emissions. But, it will be the global South that will suffer the most significant negative impact. But, good news, it is still not too late to turn this story around.

MEASURE OUR CARBON IMPACT

The start of making an impact is always to know what we’re fighting. Our impact calculations included emissions from our headquarters (electricity, heating, paper consumption, printed products), the emissions from supplier transport to our warehouse and employee commute and business travel by train, (electric) car and plane. In 2021 this totalled 50 tons of CO2 equivalent. A reduction compared to previous years.

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Our carbon footprint is calculated per the GHG protocol, a standard for measuring carbon emissions. We’ve calculated scope 1, scope 2 and parts of scope 3. CO2e stands for CO2 equivalent, the calculation where all other greenhouse gasses are converted to CO2 impact.

The emissions factor for cargo transport over land, sea and air changes every year a little, but the difference between 2020 and 2021 was more extensive. This has led to a big reduction in carbon emissions. New data showed that transport has become cleaner and thus has lower emissions.

WHAT DID WE DO TO REDUCE OUR CARBON IMPACT?

Kuyichi did not just lean back and let the carbon float in the air. We tried to reduce it wherever we could. Our office and warehouse run on Dutch wind energy and only use led lights. Most of the Kuyichi team lives close by and uses bikes or public transportation to get to work. Most company cars are fully electric. We also reduced the air freight of products a lot. The only reason to use air freight is to lower the pressure on suppliers. Through better planning and communication, we managed to reduce air transport a lot. In 2022 we started revisiting our suppliers. Due to Covid-19, this was not possible, so that impact will return on next year's calculation.

Every year our calculated carbon footprint is compensated through a Gold Standard-certified project of our own choice. We chose a project in Turkey, in the Kocaeli province, to keep it close to our supply chain.

HOW DO WE COMPENSATE FOR OUR CARBON EMISSIONS?

Climate Neutral Group has been our carbon footprint calculation and compensation partner since 2018. Every year our calculated carbon footprint is compensated through a Gold Standard-certified project of our own choice. We chose a project in Turkey, in the Kocaeli province, to keep it close to our supply chain. This project catches landfill gas from municipal waste and utilises this gas to generate energy through gas engines. It also creates local employment, builds knowledge on waste management and it supports the local school library.

WHAT’S NEXT?

2022 was the start to compensate transport of all packages sent from our warehouse to customers and retailers. Besides, we want to dive deeper into our carbon footprint, looking at our impact on the product level. We already consciously choose low-carbon impact materials, measure energy impact in our denim washes and work with suppliers who are conscious about their energy consumption. Now, we will measure and take learnings from the data to reduce our carbon impact even further. Stay tuned!