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Announcing BioLite x Climate Neutral
Letter From Jonathan | Quick FAQs | What's Happening In The Press
Hi Everyone,
Jonathan from BioLite here. Today marks the start of Climate Week, when people, orgs, and policymakers from across the globe gather in New York to collectively address climate change.
It’s a good day to announce the launch of Climate Neutral and the Climate Neutral Certified badge below. When you see this label on a product, it means the company who made it takes responsibility for their greenhouse gas emissions by measuring, reducing, and offsetting them. We firmly believe this should be the new low bar for what it means to be "sustainable."
BioLite and over 30 other brands are committed to this standard already. We believe all brands should be doing it. Now.
Today’s economy is made possible by activities that put greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Those gases (collectively called CO2e, or just carbon) are causing climate change. We’ve known this for a while, and it’s scary. We wring our hands in anxiety, assuming there is little we can do about it.
Enough hand-wringing. Humans know how to stop climate change. We know what a climate-friendly economy looks like, and we're already making it happen. BioLite is committed to delivering renewable energy products, but this is way bigger than just us: it’s happening with electric vehicles, electrified industrial processes, and power generated by wind and solar. It's happening with reforestation, carbon-sequestering farming practices, and responsible food sourcing.
But there’s a hurdle to jump: this transition will take time, and lots of money. And it’s incredible to me that for as long as we’ve been aware of climate change, no government has taken action to mandate that businesses clean up their carbon. In other words, companies don’t currently have to pay for their carbon emissions…they pollute for free.
Well, no more. Not for BioLite. And not for any business that becomes Climate Neutral Certified. We choose to reduce our emissions, and pay for the emissions which we cannot avoid. And we do so because it’s the right thing to do.
We don’t have to wait for government action, we can put a dent in things now. If enough companies show the willingness to pay voluntarily, we might even convince governments to enact the right policies.
So why am I writing about a brand certification to you, today, at the start of Climate Week 2019?
Because you, as a customer, play a critical role in making Climate Neutral matter. Like Fair Trade Certified or USDA Organic, consumers will propel this forward by seeking brands who do the right thing.
In about a month, we’ll be asking for your help in telling all companies that it’s time to step up. In the meantime, visit climateneutral.org to learn more – and thank you for supporting us and the other brands out there who are ready to act.
Let's do this.
Jonathan Cedar
Founder & CEO, BioLite
Co-Founder, Climate Neutral
Quick FAQs
Climate Neutral is a non-profit organization helping companies measure their carbon footprint, and publicly commit to reducing and offsetting all of it, to achieve a net-zero business operation. Once certified, companies can add the Climate Neutral Certified label to packaging and products so consumers can easily recognize which companies are committed to climate action.
Climate Neutral is an independent non-profit organization which was co-founded by the founders and CEOs of BioLite and Peak Design. As founders/CEOs of entirely carbon neutral companies, Jonathan (BioLite) and Peter (Peak Design) shared the same burning question: why aren't more companies doing this? It didn't take long for the answer to become clear: carbon offsetting was widely misunderstood, misrepresented, and poorly marketed, both to brands and consumers. In late 2018, Peter, Jonathan, and their respective teams joined forces with the goal of making carbon neutrality a mainstream baseline for sustainability and Climate Neutral was born.
Yup, you’re totally right. In 2015, we offset the full carbon emissions history of the company and have continued forward with carbon neutral operations each year since.
We are able to reduce CO2 through our work in emerging markets, where we replace toxic open fires with the clean-burning BioLite HomeStove. A smoky open cooking fire emits as much CO2 annually as car in addition to other toxic byproducts that have devastating effects on health. The BioLite HomeStove’s clean combustion technology cuts CO2 in half and reduces harmful emissions by up to 94%. For every ton of greenhouse gas emissions saved (measured in CO2e) BioLite generates a carbon credit – we can sell these credits and reinvest revenues to help accelerate our work in bringing clean energy access to households that need it most. However, in 2015, before we began selling credits, we retired 2,921 of our credits to take responsibility for our organization’s footprint. To learn more about how we measure and offset our footprint, take a look at our most recent Environmental Sustainability Report.
Climate Neutral was created to make it as simple as possible for companies and brands to measure their footprint and identify opportunities to reduce it. The organization helps brands purchase offsets for un-reduced emissions and market their commitment to climate action to consumers through the use of the Certified Neutral label.
That’s great! Head over to climateneutral.org to learn more about how the certification works and reach out to the team here to get involved.
Climate Neutral In The Press
- Episode 28: Austin Whitman, Executive Director at Climate Neutral (My Climate Journey, August 2019)
- The talk of the show: Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2019 (Snews, July 2019)
- Paper beer bottles and waterless dye: Here’s how outdoor companies are getting creative to reduce their environmental impact (The Colorado Sun, June 2019)
- Climate Crusaders (The Daily, June 2019)
- Your food has labels. These entrepreneurs think your outdoor brands should, too — for the climate (The Denver Post, June 2019)
- Climate Neutral Certification Organization to Launch at Outdoor Retailer (Cool Hunting, June 2019)
- Global Summit 2019: Accelerating the movement through activism (1% for the Planet, May 2019)