(Otway's National Park - photo by: NB Photography)
Today (21st of September) is Global Zero Emissions Day, a day we’re big fans of at Big Little Brush. We always get stoked when we see organisations like the Climate Leadership Coalition and the IPCC, helping to educate us all about the importance of reducing the overall carbon emissions we produce as a planet.
Why are Carbon Emissions such a big deal?
Well, where to begin! It’s easy to think of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (or CO2) a bit like a cosy warm blanket. Spread nicely across our quietly sleeping planet, perfectly designed to trap heat, farts, and raise the global average temperature (or in other words: cause Climate Change). “Ooh sounds lovely” you say, “I’ve always wished Melbourne was a touch warmer in Spring” (you and me both!). Trouble is CO2 isn’t exactly like a blanket, it’s more like a mean bully with a magnifying glass, frying all the little ants and laughing... If you let them go on for too long, whether they plan to or not, they’ll steal your lunch order and/or start a bushfire. Worst!
Our impact… how it started and how it’s going.
We’re at a really critical point as a planet right now. We know that if the average global temperature increases, even just by a few degrees, it might not quite be game over, but it definitely won’t be pretty. Pretty good estimates put us at around +1.1 degree right now, so there’s definitely still hope! There’s stacks of great resources for individuals and businesses out there on the interwebs on what we can all do about it, so we won’t try to reinvent them here. But what we did want to talk about is what we’re doing to manage the impact of our own business on our climate.
We’re really lucky in that big little brush is a super lightweight operation right now:
- All of our shipping (from our suppliers to us and and from us to our customers) is via climate responsible carriers.
- Our website is hosted by Shopify who are certified carbon neutral
- We do pay for ads with Facebook and Google, both of which have made substantial investments in sustainability.
- Our toothbrushes are made from Bamboo which converts carbon into oxygen as it grows and breaks down in around a year (plastic brushes can take upwards of 600 years)
- Our packaging contains no plastic (plastic is a sometimes unexpected contributor to climate change too) and is recyclable
- So far, we've also prevented over 13,000 plastic toothbrushes from making their way into landfill or our oceans (by replacing them with bamboo ones)
Things we’re working on improving:
- We don’t have an office or central factory so the blb team all work from home. We want to make sure we’re managing any emissions created by our home energy use. This includes looking at renewable energy supply and potentially high-quality offsets. (we know offsets aren’t perfect so we’re preferencing renewables). We’re committed to learning, and doing more in this space.
- We also want to improve our knowledge of our supply chain as we see this as possibly our biggest opportunity for improvement. Expect to see more about this from us in the semi-near future.
Like a lot of crew, we’re on a journey! We bloody love this planet and it turns out, it’s probably the best one we have (sorry Elon, Jeff... life on Mars sounds awful). We’re committed to doing better and we want you to hold us accountable.
Big love
Joel (founder) and the BLB crew.
P.s. Tomorrow is World Car Free day so please join me as I walk my normal commute: from my bed to my desk, via my kitchen and maybe even a shower. #lockdown life, am I right?