Episode Details

Measure, Reduce, Offset. That's the simple formula for Climate Neutral, a new label that certifies the commitment of a brand to track, and lower, their carbon emissions. Austin Whitman and Caitlin Drown join us to talk about the future of brand trust, consumer expectation, and even a little bit of speculation on how offsetting today can change the world tomorrow. Listen now!

Show Notes

Main Takeaways:

• Phillip is joined in today's episode by Austin Whitman and Caitlin Drown from Climate Neutral.

• Climate Neutral is a movement intended to help brands quantify and then reduce their carbon footprints.

• Consumers are driving the economic engine, so it's imperative to make your voice heard to encourage positive changes in your favorite brands.

• How can you offset your carbon footprint enough to be carbon neutral?

Reducing and Offsetting Carbon Footprints: The Climate Neutral Initiative:

• Future Commerce joined the Climate Neutral movement back in October of this year.

• Climate Neutral is a young, non-profit organization that exists with the sole purpose of helping businesses understand what their carbon footprints are, take meaningful actions to reduce those carbon footprints, and then offset the entirety of that impact on the environment.

• People simply don't understand where carbon emissions come from and what to do about them.

• Climate Neutral is creating a label that will be placed on products to let consumers know that brands have gone through the Climate Neutral process.

Why Start at Retail?: Making the Biggest Impact:

• Climate Neutral started with retail because consumers are what drive the economic engine by buying products and services.

• The two brands that funded Climate Neutral were BioLite and Peak Design who both realized that there are limits to how much they can reduce their carbon footprints, but that's not the limit to what you can do.

• There needs to be a strong signal to companies that doing something to reduce your carbon footprint is an economical investment.

• Climate Neutral is working with brands that many consumers would already know such as Kickstarter and Allbirds.

Spreading the Message: Making an Impact on Social:

• Caitlin has noticed that a lot of large influencers on Instagram that aren't associated with one of Climate Neutral's brands have been promoting Climate Neutral of their own accord.

• Sharing the story is encouraging influencers and brands to get involved and taking action in a transparent way.

• Transparency is a major factor in gaining the trust of consumers.

• The brands that sign with Climate Neutral are validating Climate Neutral as much as the initiative gains credibility from the brands' involvement.

What is the Goal?: Strategic Brand Partnerships:

• Goal #1 is to understand and capture a large amount of carbon within the brands that Climate Neutral is representing.

• The label will only be provided to companies that have measured their carbon footprint, taken measured action towards things that will reduce that carbon footprint, and finally offsetting the entirety of their measured footprint.

• In addition to making a big carbon impact, another