Carbon Neutrality for Online Orders

Did you know, Slowood’s home delivered orders are Carbon Neutral?! Our partnership with a company called ‘EcoCart’ helps make this possible. Every time you place an order, the average carbon emissions are calculated; we then work to offset that by planting a certain number of trees. 

Since launching Eco Cart with Slowood in November 2021, you've helped us to offset 265,842kg of carbon. To help you wrap your head around that, it's equivalent to:

How Ecocart work? We hear you wonder.
Our friends at EcoCart’s unique algorithm estimates the carbon footprint of shipping and manufacturing your specific order. Working out exactly how many CO2 emissions are emitted means they can work out how many trees need to be planted to offset that. The calculation considers variables such as package weight, product type,  the movement of goods from the manufacturer to our own warehouse and the “last mile” which is the special name given to the delivery route between our warehouse and your front door! 

Before we get any deeper, let’s ensure you know what exactly a carbon footprint is
Whenever a product is created, energy is used. The ‘carbon footprint’ is the total amount of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide and methane) that are generated by those actions.

But what is ‘carbon offsetting’ and how does it work?
Carbon offsetting is a practical and effective way for us to neutralise our carbon footprint for our home delivery orders. From the energy needed to manufacture goods, transport them, and get them ready to sell, all of these activities emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which directly contributes to creating a carbon footprint (...and the climate crisis).

By working with Eco Cart, we can support projects that actively remove, reduce, or prevent future carbon emissions. Activities include things like forest protection and management, composting, creating clean energy sources, and more. In our case, we work with the ‘Tri-City Forest’ (more on that up ahead!). 

When we work to reduce carbon emissions and offset the remaining carbon dioxide, this is called becoming ‘carbon neutral’. This means we make no net release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In other words, carbon offsetting allows us to mitigate our carbon footprint when it comes to emissions that can’t be completely reduced or removed.

Those trees you’ve helped plant…
They’re planted in the ‘Tri-City Forest’. This is in West Springfield, Massachusetts (USA). The Tri-City Forest works to protect over 6,500 acres of forest and captures over 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide each year. You can see a photo of this beautiful and diverse forest below. 

Of course we’d love to do this work right here in our home, Hong Kong, and we’re working on that. Just like you, we’re always taking tiny steps towards a more sustainable future. 

Is this legitimate?
Sure is. The initiative is supported by American Carbon Registry which was Founded in 1996 as the first private voluntary offset program in the world, ACR has twenty-five years of unparalleled experience in the development of rigorous, science-based carbon offset standards and methodologies as well as operational experience in carbon offset project registration, verification oversight and offset issuance.