We did it again - Tripulse got Climate Neutral Certified for the year 2024!
Did you know that with your purchase of a Tripulse product you are making a positive contribution to our climate? Every year, part of our revenue goes to purchasing carbon credits to invest in nature-based climate solutions that neutralize our CO2 emissions - and we have done this every single year since Tripulse got launched.
While Tripulse has sustainability at the very core from day one and we have brought the CO2 emissions connected to our brand and products to a very low level from the very start, there are still CO2 emissions that occur as part of running a business and making products. Even working digitally has CO2 implications.
Sadly, climate compensation and Climate Neutrality initiatives have received bad press and reputation over the last year. And that’s because companies that inherently have a climate-damaging business model have purchased carbon credits to “green” their company reputation and to present themselves as being very sustainable - basically continuing doing harm but masking it with their climate compensation activities. A typical case of greenwashing. Also, some of the organizations that verify the climate projects have turned out to be not fully monitoring projects and lacked the impact they were promising.
Our take on this is that climate compensating is an important part of running a holistically sustainable business. However, this has to go hand in hand with an overall sustainable business model and ensuring that our brand makes major efforts to reduce our CO2 emissions continuously. Also, we should only partner up with legitimate NGOs that use verification standard partners that are properly monitoring the projects and ensure the impact they promise.
We exist to protect our planet, people and health. And for us, it’s important to do whatever we hold in our power to help combat climate change, which is the single biggest threat to humanity and life on Earth. And that is why we got once again Climate Neutral Certified in 2024.
Why is climate compensation important?
Because we simply don’t have any time to waste.
Globally, we emit almost 60 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases every year. These are the carbon emissions that cause climate change, and the fashion industry, including the production of all the clothes which people wear, is responsible for around 10% of these emissions due to the resources and energy required to make and deliver the products.
If we don’t take responsibility for this problem now, then there’s no way we’ll hit the 2050 goals set out by the Paris Climate Agreement. These are make-or-break goals. Reach them, and we avoid the devastating effects of climate change. Miss them, and life on Earth will change for all of us and the billions of people on our precious planet.
We’re acting now because scientifically-vetted solutions to climate change exist, and they are luckily accessible to brands like ours. We know that carbon emissions are the root cause of climate change, and we understand how our activities lead to greenhouse gas emissions. All that’s left to do is connect the dots.
We partnered up with Change Climate. They are a nonprofit organization committed to solving climate change by making carbon neutrality simple and accessible. The label is essentially shorthand for the process outlined below.
How does it work?
We are doing our share to eliminate carbon emissions. We joined forces with Change Climate to measure, offset, and reduce last year's carbon emissions.
These are the three steps we took to get Climate Neutral Certified for 2024:
1. Measure
We measured our 2023 carbon footprint at 30 tonnes. To arrive at this number, we used Climate Neutral’s BEE emission estimator which reflects company behavior by sector and country and which measures emissions very "generously".
It includes emissions created from making and delivering our products, including supply chain emissions, team commuting, business travel, and more. These are the so-called scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions scope per the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and include the entirety of a carbon footprint from a company’s activities.
It’s important to highlight that indeed all emissions tied to our company are included, not only those linked to our products or shipping. As only by considering the entirety can we then be climate neutral as a company.
2. Offset
We “zeroed-out” these emissions by purchasing 30 carbon credits which even includes a 15% markup for assurance.
One carbon credit is a certificate generated when someone takes an action to eliminate or avoid the emission of one metric tonne of greenhouse gas emissions. These 30 tonnes carbon credits support a portfolio of projects from nature-based solutions.
This year we focused our Climate Neutral offsetting efforts into rainforest conservation in Brazil and rainforest restoration in Borneo.
We do this by purchasing carbon credits from strictly certified NGOs who collaborate with local communities to protect and restore these criticial ecosystems through education, alternative livelihood financing and monitoring regimes.
Here a break-down of how we diversified our carbon credits across different projects:
- Empowering forest conservation in Brazil benefits communities, carbon and biodiversity. We purchased 20 tonnes through Pointzero. The project covers an area c. 39,300 hectares of tropical rainforest and foregoes forest conversion to grassland in favour of conserving the tropical forest. The Project preserves rich biodiversity and a wide range of ecosystem services; it benefits the local communities and mitigates the release of ~12.6 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over the first 10 years of the Project.
- Empowering forest restoration and conservation in Borneo. We purchased 10 tonnes through Pointzero. The world’s largest forest-based emissions project area, Katingan generates an average 7.5 million triple-gold certified carbon credits annually – equivalent to taking 2,000,000 cars off the road each year. This project protects vital peatland habitats in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia for five Critically Endangered, eight Endangered and 31 Vulnerable species. The protected area is home to between 5 – 10% of the last remaining Bornean Orangutan, Proboscis Monkey and Southern Bornean Gibbon. It is considered to be a biodiversity hotspot and positively impacts around 45,000 people across 34 different communities.
3. Reduce
Last, but not least, we created an Reduction Action Plan to help lower the emissions we produce over the next 12-24 months. The actions include:
- We will reduce waste in our supply chain by creating new products out of deadstock materials.
- When flight travels are necessary, we will require all team members to utilize services like Google Flights to choose the most carbon efficient trip within our budget range. Additionally, we'll aim to optimize air travel by scheduling multiple meetings during a single trip.
We're also proud to report that we have progressed and completed the actions of our previous' years action plans, such as by reducing waste through launching our products on a pre-order basis (we’ve done this for our bra and new shorts with side pockets) and improving our sizing information and image quality to bring returns and exchanges and therewith any transport-related emissions to a minimum.
For more details, you can also check out our page on the Change Climate platform.
Going beyond Climate Neutral
We don't stop at being simply climate neutral.
We do additional climate-compensation by investing into climate projects with each product shipment we do, and plant one tree for every product purchased with NGO Onetreeplanted.
This way we do more than is required from us to be Climate Neutral, and in order to make a net positive contribution to our climate.
Why do we do that? Because we believe we simply don't have time to do otherwise.
With your investment and purchase of a Tripulse product, you’re not only treating yourself to amazing activewear, but you’re also making a real difference to our climate.
What happens next?
Now we are officially Climate Neutral Certified for 2024. But we don’t stop here, there is always more to do.
In the next months and year we’ll be taking action on our reduction plan and bringing our CO2 emissions down even further. After a year’s time, we’ll measure our emissions again and repeat the process.
We’re glad you’re with us for the journey. Let’s work together to tackle climate change faster. By choosing Tripulse you're making an active vote for our climate.
If you have any questions in regards to our Climate Neutral journey, we'd love to hear from you.
With love and to a cleaner, healthier future!
Franziska (founder of Tripulse)
P.S.: Don't forget to sign up to our newsletter if you want to stay informed about all the things we do for the climate, and for the latest news and exclusive Tripulse offers.
