In today’s modern marketplace, it’s not enough to pay lip service to the planet. Conscious consumers are savvy. Wise to greenwashing, when it comes to supporting businesses who are making a tangible effort to protect the planet, mindful shoppers are looking for proof that you’re taking real action.
Offsetting or reducing your carbon emissions at source doesn’t have to be difficult or even particularly costly. And as a brand, you have so much to gain – from the increased support of your audience, through to demonstrable brand values and the satisfaction of knowing you’re part of the solution – not the problem.
What’s the best way of ensuring that you’re mitigating the impact of your online business as much as possible? A little expert assistance. In this article, we’ve pulled together some of our favourite apps that can help when it comes to creating a greener, leaner ecommerce store.
CarbonClick
CarbonClick offers a simple and cost-effective way for brands to add an easy offsetting option to the checkout process, with the addition of their distinctive green offsetting button. This makes making a conscious choice to shop in a more environmentally sound fashion much easier. Even if shoppers choose not to opt for offsetting, their awareness of the issue has still been heightened.
CarbonClick has a unique “blended basket” strategy when it comes to carbon offsets. The purpose of this tactic is to ensure that (wherever possible) some of the positive impact of offsetting is felt locally, by the offsetter! We love this concept – and if no local projects exist close to the person who’s made the choice to offset their purchase, it will default to broader international projects.
Learn more about CarbonClick (and their uber-green staff community policy!) here.
GreenStory
While we’ll always champion the brands who walk the walk – sometimes when it comes to sustainability, talking the talk is also important! This is where GreenStory comes in. Their app is able to apply supply chain analysis to your products, helping you to visualise and communicate the story of your sustainability efforts in an appealing and clear fashion.
Transparency is so important when it comes to showing the steps any brand is making towards improvement. GreenStory isn’t about showing perfection, but progress. What’s more, by highlighting the issues within your supply chain and sourcing, they can shine a light on the areas where you can be focusing your attention.
C Free
When it comes to running a less impactful operation, C Free can provide help to your business in three different ways: calculation, reduction and offsetting. We love this approach as it doesn’t simply rely on undoing damage already committed – it takes a holistic approach, aiming to reduce the damage in the first instance.
In addition to helping you get down to carbon-neutral status, C Free can also offer help when it comes to creating a carbon-friendly workforce. They also offer a tree planting integration for your Shopify store, to help incentivize and reward your customers.
EcoCart
If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to help your customers neutralize the carbon impact of their purchase, say hello to EcoCart. This free Shopify plugin enables the carbon footprint of each order to be calculated by EcoCart’s genius algorithm - with multiple variables used to work out the exact emissions, factoring in every step in the supply chain, from manufacturing to shipping.
EcoCart is a great example of an app that helps see merchants rewarded for doing the right thing. By offering a sustainable shopping experience, EcoCart has been shown to actively increase the conversation rates enjoyed by stores, so it’s great news for people, profit and planet!
EarthChain
Whether you use EarthChain as a business or an individual, you’re going to get some great insight into the carbon cost and consequence of the choices you make. The EarthChain APIs make it possible to measure the CO2 emissions of any purchase. As an ecommerce merchant, you can then offer the opportunity for your customer to choose to offset (typically a very small amount – but as we know, every little helps, and these tiny payments all add up to real, positive impact.)
If you use EarthChain as an individual, it will help you calculate your carbon footprint based on your habits, lifestyle and even choice of banking provider!
Want to see your app included in this round-up? We’d love to hear from you!