As a fully remote software company, we realize it's much easier for us to neutralize our environmental impact than most other organizations. While we've been able to offset 100% of the carbon emissions that we generate every year since 2017, there are so many other things we can do every day to make an even bigger impact both as a company and individually.
Here's the environmental path we've taken so far, some of the things we've started to do, and our long-term goals and how we hope to achieve them.
While we don't manufacture physical products, our data center use and day-to-day operations still burn fossil fuels and contribute to global climate change. We decided our first step was to measure our "carbon footprint" and then purchase enough CO2 offsets to reach net-zero emissions.
We began this effort in 2017 with an estimated 300 metric tonnes of emissions company-wide, buying these offsets with the wonderful nonprofit, COTAP (Carbon Offsets to Alleviate Poverty). We added up our flights, data center power consumption, estimates of our personal travel and power consumption, and a handful of other inputs.
Since then, COTAP has planted over 6,500 trees, representing over 1,100 metric tons of CO2.
Small lifestyle changes can have a huge cumulative impact in protecting our environment. From encouraging a switch to renewable electricity providers and providing a "green products" stipend, to subsidizing TerraCycle™ boxes for our homes and coworking spaces, we're always looking for new ways to encourage local action.
Each one might seem like a drop in the bucket, but they all contribute and can catalyze bigger actions or others to do the same things. Friends can see how easy it is to switch to renewables or that options exist to recycle snack bags and toddler pouches.
We don't think our responsibility ends with offsetting our own impact, especially considering how lucky we are that our carbon footprint is inherently small.
Our goal is to begin investing 1% of our annual profits into capturing atmospheric carbon beyond our own offsets, and sequestering it with two different types of technologies we want to support—those that store it in our trees and soil, and those that store it underground in rocks. We hope this can help us meet the 2-degree warming target many governments have adopted.
Planting new trees or modifying farming practices pulls CO2 out of the air to be used by these plants and soil. You can do this via COTAP today! It's established and scales very well, but storage can be shorter-lived.
These technologies are much newer, but by storing CO2 into stable rock formations underground or even in concrete, they can complement efforts with thousand-year or longer timelines in much greater quantities.
We reached our goal of a carbon-neutral footprint and you can too! If you're interested in getting started, Stripe has a great step-by-step guide or you can reach out to us anytime.
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