BY MUIR DIRECTOR OF IMPACT KATEY FORD
Step 1 has proved to be our most intense data gathering time. To stay on track to be certified in time for the Earth Day (and John Muir’s birthday!) deadline goal, data aggregation had to be completed by February 1.
Q: So what are we being asked to gather??
A: All emissions related to production and distribution of Muir! That includes all inputs up and downstream, and yes it was a nightmare, but worth it!
I tried to be as comprehensive as possible and believe that I did a dang good job!
For example, all of our ingredients are shipped from various cities and countries all over the world. To account for travel emissions to get to our San Diego warehouse, I had to track the journey that our Vanilla Extract from Madagascar took. Miles traveled and weight of parcel correlate to a certain amount of metric tonnes of carbon which we will ultimately offset once every input is accounted for as such.
Rest assured, even our downstream shipping (and shipping materials) have been accounted for! If you received a MUIR Energy order in 2020, my work these past few months has contributed to being as close to carbon neutral as I believe we could have gotten.
Luckily our shipping program allowed me to export an excel file of every shipment zip code we shipped to. From here I downloaded another excel file with U.S. city latitudes and longitudes so I could track the distance from 92103 to your home zip code. I also did this with every retailer order, including all shipments to REI! So even if you purchase MUIR from your favorite local retailer, you can hit the trails knowing that your pouch emissions have been accounted for.
I have entered all data into our aggregation workbook and will move on to the next step of using Climate Neutral’s proprietary emissions calculator, BEE (brand emissions estimator). This will in turn provide our pollution in metric tonnes, allowing us to consider our various options for carbon offset purchasing. Stay tuned for the next leg of the journey!
