Climate Change
Jute plants growing in Bangladesh. Like all plants, they remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
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Our carbon offset providers are Equiclimate - approved by DEFRA.
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Climate change is the biggest challenge facing life on Earth today. Feeding the needs of the consumer society means pumping carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere - changing its composition and so making the earth warmer. The impact is already being felt. Extreme weather, drought, an increase in malaria, the melting of ice sheets, rises in sea levels and the disappearance of coral reefs have all been attributed to global warming produced by CO2 emissions.
Canby jute bags are good for the environment: they are biodegradable and reusable alternatives to plastic and paper. But they are also produced with minimum impact on the environment - from the growing of the jute itself (which of course absorbs C02) to manufacture to delivery via the most carbon-efficient route possible. The relatively small amount of carbon we inevitably create in making and shipping these bags has been completely offset with our partners Equiclimate.
This is how we do it. The Kyoto Protocol commits its member countries to an overall 8% reduction in Greenhouse Gas emissions by 2012. As part of Kyoto the European Union (EU) has a fixed allocation of CO2 which is available for industry. Large companies have an allocation of "carbon credits" which can be traded on the market -- the so called Emissions Trading Scheme or ETS. The overall allocation of carbon credits is scheduled to reduce year on year. Using Equiclimate we are able to buy carbon credits on the open market - and "retire" them, rather than selling to other traders and brokers. This way Canby is removing CO2 from the pool available to European industry straight away.
Some carbon offset schemes spend as much as half of their income on marketing, salaries and profit. Many employ a - to us incomprehensible - mixture of long-term third world development schemes, expensive (and untested) carbon reduction technologies and self-promoting education programmes. The UK government has endorsed just four schemes that meet their strict criteria - and Equiclimate, a not-for-profit company, is one of them.
Choosing Canby bags means you are helping to cut carbon emissions right now, right here - where we can make an immediate difference. Because immediate action is what is needed.
