Becoming a Carbon-Neutral Company and Fighting Climate Change

Sustainability is a core value here at Scalable Path. While sustainability in part refers to that of our employees – taking care of themselves so they can consistently perform and feel good about their work – it also reflects our passion for the environment, and our commitment to protecting and preserving it.

Scientists have long been examining the impact of climate change. In recent years, however, the pace of climate change and impact of global warming has been accelerating faster than research anticipated. For the last eight years, we’ve consistently had the hottest global years on record. The Arctic, long seen as an indicator of the pace and extent of global warming, has warmed at nearly twice the rate of lower latitudes. Wildfires are threatening natural habitat and agriculture across nations. Flooding and extreme rainfall are becoming not just expected, but common. And all of this is happening faster than predicted.  Without major societal shifts and technological innovations, we may not overcome this global challenge.  

While we’re under no illusions that we can single-handedly solve climate change, we do believe that Scalable Path can take steps to reduce its environmental impact. To this end, we set about researching and taking steps to become a carbon-neutral company. 

Estimating our Carbon Footprint

Estimating our carbon footprint was challenging. Calculating the emissions of a remote team distributed across countries and continents was no easy feat. A person in France, for instance, might use more electricity than a person in Brazil because of shorter daylight hours and colder temperatures, but the person in France’s electricity is likely generated using more nuclear power which does not emit greenhouse gasses. There are so many variables between countries, and we didn’t think it was feasible to calculate and track it all. So we settled on a reasonable guess: that a full-time remote worker uses roughly 2 tons of CO2 per year on utilities while working. As of Spring 2022, we began purchasing carbon credits using this guideline, and can now say that we are carbon neutral. 

Envira Amazonia Project

We chose to purchase our carbon credits by supporting a project in the Western Amazon called Envira Amazonia.  We selected this project for two primary reasons. First, the Amazon is a region where major deforestation is currently taking place, and second, we can make a true difference by preventing deforestation in a region where it actually is occurring and make a larger impact in terms of CO2 sequestered per dollar.

We purchased the credits through Reforest’Action, a French B Corp that funds projects around the world to preserve, restore, or recreate forest ecosystems for the long term. 

If you’re interested in offsetting your carbon emissions or have the goal of becoming carbon neutral, you can learn more here: https://www.reforestaction.com/en/contribution-climate.