Investing in carbon emissions reduction
1.4% of our total measured and reported CO₂ emissions in 2015 came from business travel and employee commuting. These components of our greenhouse gas footprint are necessary parts of our business operations, and while we’re taking significant steps to reduce their impacts, we don’t yet see a way to eliminate them entirely. Additionally, we haven’t yet identified carbon neutral alternatives to the heating fuels we use at many of our offices, which accounted for less than 1% of our total carbon footprint.
In these particular cases, we’ve decided to invest in carbon offsets to address our footprint. Carbon offsets are, essentially, a trade. To balance out carbon emissions produced by one activity, a business or individual makes an investment in another activity that reduces them. These carbon offset projects can be as simple as planting trees to as complex as building a wind farm, and many things in between.
| Source and scope of emissions | 2015 metric tons CO₂e | Percentage of total 2015 metric tons CO₂e |
|---|---|---|
| Onsite combustion/heating fuel (Scope 1)* | 172 | 0.2 |
| Purchased electricity (Scope 2)* | 2340 | 2.6 |
| Shipping (Scope 3) | 85687 | 95.7 |
| Travel + commuting (Scope 3) | 1232 | 1.4 |
| Content delivery network (Scope 3)† | 40 | 0.05 |
| Transmission of water and methane gas production from waste (Scope 3) | 39 | 0.05 |
Read more about our total carbon footprint and our shipping footprint.
In 2015, we worked to source responsible carbon offsets from trustworthy partners. We had a number of criteria for these investments. First of all, we wanted to be sure that the emissions reductions created by the projects we chose would not have occurred without carbon finance. Second, we wanted to ensure that the offsets we purchased were not “double-counted,” meaning that the emissions reductions rights were not being claimed in another way. We also sought offsets that had a positive impact on the communities where the projects are located and made an effort to invest in projects in the same geography as the initial source of our greenhouse gas emissions. For example, we’re investing in a project in the US to offset our US-based commuting and travel footprint.
To source and purchase offsets for our US footprint, we’ve partnered with offset provider 3Degrees. Our Green-e‡ certified offsets come from a landfill gas capture project in Texas. 3Degrees owns the rights to the entire ten-year output of the project, so we’re confident that the project is additional and that the emissions reductions have not been double counted.
Our greenhouse gas impact outside of the US is scattered globally, so for these emissions we decided to source offsets from a project with an innovative approach to carbon finance. The Chocó-Darién Conservation Corridor is the first conservation project in the world to be awarded carbon credits for protecting community-owned forests. Managed by a community association of Afro-Colombian families, the project protects 13,465 hectares of tropical rainforest in northwest Colombia, one of the most biologically diverse regions on the planet.
In total we purchased 1,404 carbon offsets to address our 2015 Scope 1 footprint and our Scope 3 emissions from employee travel and commuting.
* Etsy commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP ("PwC") to provide third-party assurance of this data (for the period from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015) in our 2015 Progress Report. For full details, see PwC's Report of Independent Accountants.
† This represents data received from one Content Delivery Network provider. We are working to get data from all providers in the future.
‡ Green-e Certified offsets are sourced from verified projects, and an independent third party certified that the product meets strict consumer-protection and environmental standards.