Roompact has always been sensitive to the needs of our planet, attempting to make green choices whenever possible. Beginning in 2021, Roompact made a formal commitment to our planet by offsetting all of our carbon usage when greener options weren’t available. Partnering with the organization We Are Neutral, we have submitted an inventory about our carbon usage again for this year and have purchased offsets to achieve carbon neutrality.
Although carbon offsets are a positive step, we also aim to reduce our carbon usage overall. We believe that being transparent about our carbon footprint and our efforts to reduce it can be an important catalyst for encouraging other companies, organizations, and individuals to do the same. Below you will find our report card for this year:
- 2022: 32.40 tons
- 2023: 18.84 tons
This year’s carbon usage: 46.07 tons
We’ve been offsetting carbon for the past three years, and as anyone who has done research in this space knows, it’s a complicated effort. You’ll notice that our carbon use increased significantly this year, and our flights did not seem to increase as significantly–either in number or distance (which accounts for our biggest portion of carbon emissions). There are a lot of wild swings. What’s going on here?
Part of offsetting carbon is calculating how much you produce. This can vary widely depending on how this is recorded and calculated. It’s not like an Apple Watch or similar tracker for steps and other metrics, where you can get a reasonable estimate automatically. Instead, we have to track major sources of our carbon usage by speadsheet and from various sources. Calculating carbon usage also depends on a myraid of factors (if driving, what vehicle type? Airplane type? Electricity source?). The estimates themselves are imperfect and then the algorithm for calculating carbon based on that data adds an additional layer of complexity.
To further complicate things, is offsetting carbon REALLY having an effect? What does the organization you’re offsetting carbon with actually do with the amount of money given for the offset? We’ve researched these things and haven’t come up with a full and complete answer we’re happy with. Of course, the best way to reduce one’s carbon footprint is to stop engaging in carbon producing activities entirely, but that’s not always a feasible option.
We’ll continue to work on this, ruminate on this, and research this. We’ll never be perfect, but there’s got to be a better way. Transparency is a first step, but a very minimal initial one.
