Total shipping emissions offset:
5,304.9 kilograms of CO₂
Outlaw has always prioritized ethics in business across every aspect of our company, from production, to people, to penvironment (I ran out of "p" words).
Part of that commitment to the penvironment -- er, environment -- is an awareness of how every aspect of our business and our business decisions impact the world.
Ecommerce companies like ours send the majority of our orders out one at a time through the postal service, directly to you, our beloved Outlaw customers.
This means thousands of packages are being picked up by our friendly USPS guy (his name's John, in case you want to put a face to the role), delivered to the USPS hub, and then put on trucks, airplanes, and (probably) rail cars... and eventually put on another truck with your friendly USPS person (leave his or her name in the comments?), where they are painstakingly (hopefully) delivered to you personally.
All that requires a lot of transport, which means a lot of energy, which means a lot of fuel... which causes a lot of carbon dioxide to be released into the air.
As it turns out, plants really dig (bad plant pun) carbon dioxide.
There are companies whose sole purpose is to do things that absorb -- or OFFSET -- the carbon emissions from businesses like ours.
"Carbon offsets" (as a commodity) provide a (reasonably) structured way to support the activities of these companies... they plant trees, support carbon-reducing energy (solar and wind), etc.
HOWEVER, recently, the concept of "carbon offsets" has come under scrutiny... are they really helpful? And do they really erase the carbon as if it was never emissed?*
I think it's probably kind of like committing a sin (say, coveting your neighbor's Outlaw bumper sticker), and then going to confession and doing the rosary to atone for the sin. It doesn't REALLY mean you didn't do the coveting (and thou shalt not covet the bumper sticker anyways, 'cause we'll just send you one).
So, yeah. We take carbon emissions with a grain of salt-lick.
But we still pay the something like $30/mo to cover the carbon offsets all our orders. It's not a lot, but I believe these efforts do help, when combined with a healthy breakfast... or, in our case, when combined with a host of other penvironmentally -- eek, ENVIRONMENTALLY -- friendly practices.
Since April 2022 is Earth Month, we'll be discussing some of the environmentally minded business practices we at Outlaw believe are important.
* Yes, I know the word is "emitted," but we're being poetic. I have a Poetic License, so it is permitted.
