Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time. A study performed in 2008 by James Hansen and eight other leading climate scientists allowed us to understand where we are standing in respect of climate 'tipping point' (the point where catastrophic climate change occurs) and 'point of no return' (irreversible damage). It was established that we have already crossed 'tipping point' for many systems and have only a few decades before we reach 'point of no return'. This is supported by the fact that many forest die-offs have expanded, coral reefs has vanished to an extent and many mountain glaciers are disappearing.
Getting to zero emissions is critical for our survival because the climate won’t start to stabilize until 20 to 30 years after that. Thus it is imperative for everyone to action in whatever capacity they can and that includes us.
Business have a powerful role to play in addressing the climate crisis and we are a firm believer - after all, we all have this one planet to share and care. In order to make us better in adopting green business practices, we keep asking tough questions about how conscious we really are and what more can be done in this direction. There are so many clogs in a business to keep it running that sometimes it can be overwhelming to know where to start and how far to keep going.
We have starting looking at each step in the process and each tool we use to look for areas which can benefit from more conscious decisions. During this investigation, we realised that the 'green' practices of the company with which we host our website can make a difference too! This is quite an overlooked area for many businesses and thus could be an interesting to explore.
We host our website on Shopify, which have various initiatives to address climate change. You can find more about this on their website. A few key points are mentioned below.
- Shopify’s Sustainability Fund spends at least $5 million annually on the most promising, impactful technologies and solutions to fight climate change globally.
- They have made carbon negative commitment
- They provide a carbon-neutral platform
- They target carbon-neutral operations
- They have LEED-certified offices which implies they efficiently use energy and water amongst other resources
It is through collective actions that we can make a dent in the overall global emissions while continuing to make smarter individual choices. Every step that we take can make a difference to slashing greenhouse emissions and thus we are relooking everything in our control to find opportunities to improve. We welcome any feedback that you may have for us in this regard. We would be happy to assess that in order to reduce our carbon footprint.