Everyday Earth Day
5 steps companies can take to make Earth Day every day.
Each year in April, I get a steady stream of marketing emails from companies highlighting eco-friendly products and making one-time donations in celebration of Earth Day. As a sustainability practitioner, I love the heightened awareness that this creates. On the flip side, I wish that companies would sustain this level of enthusiasm for environmental issues 365 days a year.
With climate change already affecting many parts of the world, the need for companies to take action is urgent. But the problem can seem so big and overwhelming that many don’t know where to start. At Etsy, we’ve been focused on reducing our footprint for years. By 2020, we expect our operations will be completely carbon neutral. To help others follow our sustainable path, here are five steps we have taken to get to where we are today:
Assess and measure your footprint: You can’t fix a problem if you don’t know its size and scope. Among the things that companies should track include the energy used to power their business globally and what type of energy it is, the emissions created in order to get products to their customers, and how employee commuting and travel adds up. It’s also a good idea to have these numbers assured by a reputable auditing firm so that executives can be confident that they have an accurate snapshot of their footprint.
Identify energy (and cost!) savings opportunities: Go for the low-hanging fruit first. The easiest things to fix are typically within your immediate control, such as implementing lighting upgrades, optimizing heating and cooling controls as well as significant energy uses, like data centers, and developing a rigorous office recycling and composting program. As an added bonus, many of these efforts are not only better for the planet, but can also have cost-saving benefits.
Invest in renewable energy and low-carbon technologies: Companies have been increasingly purchasing renewable energy in the last few years. In fact, corporate purchasing more than doubled between 2017 and 2018 alone, according to Rocky Mountain Institute. Until recently, much of that activity has come from big tech companies, such as Google and Apple, who are effectively reducing their carbon footprint. What’s really exciting is that we’re beginning to see clean power sources, such as wind and solar, become accessible to companies with smaller electricity needs, like Etsy.
Leverage carbon offsets as an immediate step while you work on reductions: There will undoubtedly be areas within any business that are more difficult to eliminate than others. For example, within ecommerce, shipping items on emission-free planes and trucks isn’t really a viable option today. That’s why Etsy recently became the first global ecommerce company to offset 100% of carbon emissions from shipping. This is a surprisingly affordable option and makes a real impact. It costs Etsy under one penny per package to offset emissions from shipping. At this price, we believe that offsets can and should be a viable option not only for other ecommerce players, but also for other industries.
Work with peers, vendors, and policymakers to create long-term solutions: Climate change will not be solved by one person, one company, or even one country. It’s going to take everyone working together. That’s why it’s critical that companies leverage their networks. Working with peers can lead to innovations that can help an entire industry reduce its footprint, and advocating for greener policies will encourage policymakers and regulators to take action. Businesses also have a lot of purchasing power, so creating a supplier code of conduct and holding vendors to a high standard when it comes to environmental practices can be an effective way to influence others.
When companies address their own impacts and work within their industry to innovate, real change happens. Renewable energy is developed faster. Technologies are developed that serve industries and consumers. Land is protected. Let’s make Earth Day everyday, together.
Chelsea Mozen is the Sustainability Lead at Etsy. You can read more on Etsy’s ecological commitments here.
