Enough is Enough

Solutions to climate change are obvious. It's time to step up and pay for them.

By Peak Design

September 23^rd, 2019

Hi folks, Peter here. I'm the CEO of Peak Design.

I'm here today because, like many of you, I'm stunned by the lack of meaningful action governments have taken worldwide to mitigate climate change. People strike. People protest. The world's leaders and policymakers gather in huge summits to discuss ideas. But nothing is getting done.

Enough is enough. We're not waiting any longer.

Impactful solutions to climate change exist, and they are all different flavors of the same action: reducing greenhouse gases. We know how to do that. That's not the problem. The problem is that reducing and removing atmospheric carbon costs money, and we need to step up and pay for it.

It costs money to measure our greenhouse gas emissions (aka carbon footprint). It costs money to reduce those emissions. And it costs money to offset the emissions we cannot immediately reduce.

Today, we join 40 other brands to announce a new standard of corporate sustainability: Climate Neutral Certified. When you see this label, it means the company displaying it takes responsibility for their greenhouse gas emissions by measuring, reducing, and offsetting them. In other words, they choose to pay the costs we all must bear in order to stop global warming. They do it not because they have to, but because it's the right thing to do.

The Climate Neutral Certified label will begin appearing on more and more products, telling consumers which companies are taking full responsibility for their carbon emissions.

a new low bar

We think Climate Neutral Certified should be the absolute low bar for what it means to be a sustainable company.

For one, the Climate Neutral Certification is a consistent, measurable, verifiable set of actions that any company in any industry can take. In a world full of green-washed marketing speak, Climate Neutral Certified means something very specific about a company's impact on climate change.

Secondly—and here's the real kicker—becoming Climate Neutral Certified is remarkably affordable for a vast majority of businesses. It costs Peak Design 1/5th of a percent of our top-line revenue to measure, reduce, and offset the entirety of our carbon emissions. That's still a substantial chunk of change, but a small price to pay to take immediate and direct responsibility for our contributions to global warming.

getting there faster

Today’s economy is made possible by activities that put greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Making stuff, shipping stuff, making power, growing food and meat, transporting people and things...all of these things emit greenhouse gases as a byproduct. Those gases (collectively called CO2e, or just carbon) are causing climate change. We’ve known this for a while, and it’s scary. We wring our hands in anxiety, assuming there is little we can do about it.

But there is something we can do about it. There are a million things we can do about it. We know exactly what a low-carbon, climate-friendly economy looks like, and we're already making it happen.

It's happening with electric vehicles, electrified industrial processes, and power generated by wind and solar. It's happening with reforestation, carbon-sequestering farming practices, and meat alternatives. It's happening all over the world, and it has been for years.

We don't lack solutions to climate change. We lack time. And we lack the substantial amounts of money needed to implement these solutions faster and more effectively. And as I've said already, it’s just incredible to me that for as long as we’ve been aware of climate change, no government has taken action to mandate that businesses clean up their carbon. In other words, companies—the entities who are generating demand for (and profiting from) carbon-emitting activities—don’t currently have to pay for their carbon emissions…they pollute for free.

And that's why Climate Neutral exists: to speed up our transition to a low-carbon world by putting a price on carbon emissions. Until governments do something, businesses can choose to pay the price, and consumers can know (and support) businesses who do that.

Over 40 brands have already committed to becoming Climate Neutral Certified. Soon, we'll ask for your help in telling all brands it's time to act.

A household name

Climate Neutral is an independent nonprofit org founded in early 2019 by the leaders of Peak Design and BioLite. We founded it because immediate, grand, systemic action is necessary to fight climate change. And we believe that businesses and consumers can take that action together, now.

Like Fair Trade Certified or USDA Organic, the Climate Neutral Certified label empowers consumers to seek brands who do the right thing. The success of this label lies in its awareness and ubiquity, and we're going to do our damnedest to get the word out.

In about a month, we’ll be asking for your help in turning Climate Neutral Certified into a household name and telling all companies that it’s time to step up. In the meantime, visit climateneutral.org/consumers to learn more. You can even send a note to your favorite brands, asking them to become Climate Neutral Certified.