Today's trade landscape presents an opportunity for positive change with enhanced trade and investment opportunities associated with a ‘greener economy’. In this context, our trading behaviours and patterns should consider climate resilience and sustainable business practices.
With the aim of meeting the global shift towards a ‘greener economy’ and ensuring our services are in line with sustainable business and trade practices, our Online Global programs are carbon neutral and renewable energy certified.
To offset the impact of the Online Global programs and ensure that are our services are carbon neutral we partnered with Terrapass, a social enterprise that provides carbon offsetting projects to businesses. Thanks to our investment in the Business Carbon Offset Package, through Terrapass, we have offset our carbon emissions, a total of 230 mT of carbon offsets and invested in renewable energy certificates (RECs), a total of 60,000kWh ensuring our energy is from renewable sources.
Thanks to this shift we can say with confidence that an investment in the Online Global programs means that your company can grow their exports, sales, brand, and business in target markets around the world all whilst having a net-zero impact on the planet’s resources.
See our certificates of gold-standard carbon offsets as well as renewable energy credits through our partnership with Terrapass! These certificates demonstrate our commitment to providing all our corporate clients sustainable and climate positive business solutions. Thanks to this partnership we have offset 230mT of carbon and supported 60,000kWh REC's for renewable energy production.
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Why did we decide to make our Online Global Programs climate positive?
According to the United Nations: "Good trade is trade that contributes positively to addressing the three planetary crises: the climate crisis, the nature crisis and the pollution and waste crisis. It creates resilience to environmental shocks, stimulates green innovation, creates jobs and promotes the just transition that is so central to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals".
At IBT Online, LLC we believe that considering the impacts of climate change on international trade is vital for anticipating the challenges and risks that exporters will face in the future but also the opportunities for growth. We decided to incorporate sustainable business practices and solutions to our services without diminishing our client’s potential reach and without putting ROI in the backseat. This ensures that our clients continue to grow their exports, sales, brand, and business in target markets around the world whilst having a net-zero impact on the planet’s resources. A partnership with IBT Online means that we have made the commitments to providing our clients with the most up to date solutions, and today we know this means incorporating sustainability.
We offer sustainable business Services Through our ONline Global Programs
Engaging with digital technologies has an impact on the planet’s resources, according to Forbes, “digital technologies make up 4% of greenhouse gas emissions”. Every activity we engage with online accumulates a cost to the planet, measured in grams of carbon dioxide (CO2 emissions).
Our mission at IBT Online, involves offering the most up to date solutions for our clients which include leveraging cutting-edge technologies and identifying innovative opportunities for business development. In today’s online landscape this includes finding solutions which consider and mitigate the effects of trade expansion on our planet's resources. Moreover, incorporating new practices and technologies that ensure sustainability are vital for the success of any exporter and will solidify their competitive edge. We believe that businesses that do not adapt will be at risk, while those that embrace change will see greater opportunities.
To begin our corporate journey towards sustainable business practices we first needed to investigate the impact of our corporate activities. We started measuring our Scope 1 and 2 emissions, which are the direct impacts that we can easily measure, including business trips, commuting, office supplies etc. We measured, calculated and offset IBT Online LLC's impact. Check out this blog to see how we have offset our direct CO2 emissions and ensured that all our employees and facilities are carbon neutral and clean energy certified.
Next we moved on to our services! The carbon cost of our services and all other indirect emissions that a company incurs in its supply chain are known as Scope 3 emissions. Scope 3 is often referred to as the ‘hidden cost’ because the trickle-down impacts of services or goods provided are by far the least visible and the hardest to measure accurately.
Calculating the carbon costs of our services means including the downstream impacts our services might incur, for example the carbon cost of a live website and its traffic throughout the year or running social media campaigns across multiple platforms.
The nature of trickle down impacts means that we know our calculations will never be 100% accurate. For this reason we consciously over estimated our calculations to ensure we account for additional hidden costs.
The table below demonstrates our estimated Scope 3 - CO2 emissions, calculated using Forbes and Web FX estimated carbon footprint calculator, including our services and the indirect costs that our services accrue.
According to the above calculations the total emissions for our ongoing services involved with website building, management and marketing is a total of 45 mt of CO2e.
To offset this impact and ensure that are our services are contributing positively to the climate, we partnered with Terrapass. This partnership allowed us to offset our Scope 3 by investing in their U.S. portfolio fund.
This is a blend of carbon reduction projects within North America that supports the removal of greenhouse gases, produces renewable energy, and restores freshwater ecosystems.
Our investment towards the portfolio commits Terrapass to obtain and retire the specified quantity of carbon offsets, which represents a verified reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The offsets from the Terrapass portfolio fund are registered under the Climate Action Reserve (CAR) and Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) which assures transparency and quality in the creation, quantification and verification of carbon offset projects. By investing in carbon offsets, IBT Online has contributed to the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Check out below how Terrapass ensures the capturing and destroying of carbon and methane as well as an encouraged investment in carbon-free energy production.
As well as our carbon offset investment we also needed to ensure that IBT Online, LLC was offsetting and mitigating it's consumption of energy in order to deliver our Online Global Programs. To achieve this, we invested in Terrapass' Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) and supported a total of 60,000kWh from the Green-e Energy Certified Terrapass Package. Investments in REC's contribute to renewable energy that can be paired with electricity.
This ensures that IBT Online, LLC is using and receiving the benefits of renewable energy and contributing to the expansion of the renewable electricity market in the long-term.
Terrapass RECs are Green-e certified, which means they are verified through the nation’s leading independent consumer protection program for the sale of renewable energy in the retail market!
The more RECs are in demand, the more renewable energy must be generated, which overall weakens the demand for fossil fuel and encourages sustainable practices.
Our investment and partnership with Terrapass have allowed us to ensure that our Online Global programs and all of our services are not negatively impacting the planet’s resources. A partnership with IBT Online means that we have made the commitments to providing our clients with the most up to date solutions, and today this means incorporating sustainability and climate positive practices.
