What does “Carbon Neutral” mean? And what is a “Carbon Offset”?

These terms are used by a lot of brands and companies and few people know what they really mean. We will try to explain as simply as possible using our business as an example. 

At JJwinks we do as much as we can to not damage the earth while making our products. We make in LA, we use eco-friendly fabrics and we are careful about what packaging we ship our products in.  

But, still, even with those efforts, it’s impossible to be 100% emission free. There are trucks that transport our products, as an example, and those trucks emit carbon dioxide. So, to “offset” that environmental damage we can’t control, we donate to projects like a forest protection organization in New Jersey and a wind farm in South Dakota. We use a company that helps determine the amount of carbon emissions we create by evaluating our business and products so that we know how much we should be donating per order.

The theory is that by offsetting the carbon emissions we are creating by supporting organizations that are removing carbon emissions, then we can be “Carbon Neutral”. 

It’s not a perfect system, but one of the things we can do in our efforts to reduce carbon emissions. We hope that helps explain. For more information, see our “Environmental Efforts” page on JJwinks.com.