Rocket News

Rocket Bags is Now Climate Positive

June 1, 2022
Rocket Bags

It’s clear that everyone must contribute their efforts to maintaining the protection of our planet. This effort stems from individual households, communities, businesses, and charitable organisations, all the way to officials and institutions. At Rocket Bags, our efforts are continually and actively minimising negative effects on the planet, whilst providing brands with incredible branded bags.

Climate Positive Accreditation from Earthly, is a global movement led by an experienced team of experts such as entrepreneurs, engineers and scientists. We’re delighted by this new initiative, because it’s inspired by a unique vision where businesses and institutions work with nature, and not against it to remove carbon, restore nature to its fullest, and attempt to reverse climate breakdown. To achieve this, a business must calculate its footprint, identify strategies to reduce these emissions, and attempt to remove over 10% of this footprint (110% in total). Earthly believes that being carbon neutral is no longer enough and the United Nations have emphasised the point that we are running out of time, and stressed the importance that it’s “now or never” to limit our global warming and prevent further disaster.

Achieving the Climate Positive Accreditation isn’t easy, and it won’t happen overnight. However, this is a platform which gives businesses an effective and sustainable way to invest in nature and to fight back against climate change. It’s a way businesses can contribute their efforts to protecting the earth. Furthermore, we want to share more about our Climate Positive journey, hoping that other forward-thinking businesses may join us in making the world a better place.

Why We’re Taking the Steps to Reduce our Business Footprint

At Rocket Bags, we continually strive to make a positive impact on the planet, by offering eco-friendly alternatives for our popular products and actively reducing waste within our offices. The protection of our earth is important for the many brands and businesses we work with and support. Therefore, we strive to reduce our carbon footprint and actively work towards becoming a Climate Positive Company.

We understand that the Climate Positive accreditation is just the first initial step we can do to become a true climate leader in business. This effort requires continual improvement and evolution, but we take great pride in taking this first action-oriented step to reduce our own carbon footprint on the planet by becoming an Earthly Climate Positive business. To ensure we decrease the carbon emissions entering our earth’s atmosphere, we can off-set Rocket Bag’s carbon footprint by 110%. Therefore, we can help to slow down climate change and global warming by preserving our environment and ensuring we are efficient while using the earth’s limited and precious resources.

How We’re Becoming a Climate Positive Business

 In order to receive the Climate Positive certification, the first step we needed to do was to calculate our carbon footprint across three vital areas:

  • Direct emissions that are owned or controlled by the company (For example, workspace emissions and heating)
  • Indirect emissions from purchased sources of energy that our company does not control (For example, electricity)
  • Other indirect emissions (For example, procurement or freight)

 Through these calculations, we were able to establish our total (t) CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent, or the widely used unit of measurement to show the global warming potential of Greenhouse Gases) was: 63.33 t CO2e. This equates to 2.26 t CO2e per employee or 0.05 t CO2e per square metre in our building.

However, we also worked alongside Earthly to identify several areas of reduction, which can further decrease our impact in the three vital areas stated above. On top of our efforts to reduce our footprint, we’re offsetting 110% (10%) of our emissions by investing in several nature-based projects. As stated above, these projects are working towards removing carbon, restoring nature, and reversing the effects of climate change. Here’s more information regarding the projects we’re thrilled to be supporting:

  • Brazil Nut Concessions in Madre de Dios: This project aims to conserve the rainforest in the heart of Peru hoping to reduce and ultimately stop deforestation in over 300,000 hectares of the Peruvian Amazon. To do this, they’re utilising a sustainable market for forest Brazil nuts. Their goal is to also support the livelihood of 400 families.
  • Mangrove Planting in Madagascar: Eden Reforestation runs this project and it primarily focuses on reforestation and poverty in the mangroves, which significantly contribute to carbon sequestration. Mangroves also provide critical storm surge protection and vital homes for a number of species. The Madagascar project has planted over 300 million trees across 8 countries and created over 3 million days of work for members of the local community.
  • Kasigau Dryland Protection: The Kasigau Corridor project protects over 200,000 hectares of dryland Acacia-Commiphora forest, which is home to over 2,000 elephants. The project has led to 13,936,339 t CO2e avoided and has created a market-driven solution to wildlife conservation through a community-led, community-based, sustainable model. The work they provide will impact communities and wildlife for years to come.

 Taking Action to Protect the Planet

At Rocket Bags, we’re fortunate to partner with incredible, forward-thinking brands who continually strive to go above and beyond to support their local communities. Our team also wants to go above and beyond to ensure we are conscientiously tackling serious climate and global issues, which will seriously affect everyone.

In order to fulfil this goal, we have worked tirelessly to create and develop an efficient roadmap which will pave the path we must take to improve our overall sustainability. First, this means ensuring our products are eco-friendly and providing our customers with valuable information on how their product selection impacts our earth. We are also publishing a number of policies and documentation to ensure our customers are aware and able to make an informed choice. These documents will outline where we stand as a company regarding ethics, environmental impacts, and social responsibility.

Alongside the roadmap, policies and documentation, we are currently drafting a responsibility report which outlines our plans and goals in detail, including our goal progress. Then, we will publish the eco-credentials of each of our products on our website, which will lead into our planned off-setting scheme.

This plan will take continual evolution and we are up to the challenge. So, please join us in our effort to fight climate change and bring sustainability to the forefront of our business.

We’d love to share even more. Please reach out any time to learn more about our Climate Positive journey or to share your own efforts to keep Earth inhabitable. We’re all on this planet and in this together.