The Carbon We Owe
The first post in a series on how we manage our environmental footprint.
In one of our recent chats, Blair asked me a question I couldn't answer succinctly, which usually means it's a good one.
For context, we buy carbon credits from the Delta Blue Carbon project to address the CO₂e (carbon dioxide equivalents) emissions from making and shipping our clothes. His question, "Does buying credits once 'clean up' our footprint? CO₂e sit in the atmosphere for a very long time. If we emit a tonne this year and pay for a tonne of removal this year, are we square forever?"
Where our emissions come from
Cotton grown in the Indus basin, spun and woven locally, cut and stitched by the workshops we wrote about in a prior blog, then shipped to you. This chain includes diesel in the tractors transporting cotton from the fields, coal-generated steam in the dyeing boiler, furnace oil-based power generation in the grid, and, finally, fuel to get the order shipped. That's roughly 9 kg CO₂e per garment to get the product from the farm to your door.
Where our credits come from
The Delta Blue Carbon project in the Indus Delta - where the Indus River, the same river used to irrigate our cotton, meets the sea. The project has been regenerating degraded mangroves since 2015 across roughly 350,000 hectares and is expected to draw down around 142 million tonnes of CO₂e over 60 years. It's registered under Verra and triple-gold certified for its impact on 60 villages located around the project site. The project was chosen not just for its impact but for its proximity to our workshops, only about 900 km away.
GeographyRealm: Blue Carbon Explained (Dempsey, Caitlin) 2024 August 12
Mangroves are unusual in where they store their carbon. A dry-forest tree holds carbon in wood, above ground, where a potential wildfire or unchecked logging can release it. A mangrove pushes it down into waterlogged sediment where decay stalls out. This is the "new carbon" in the above diagram, settling onto "old carbon" laid down over centuries.
Waterlogged mud is excellent at storing this carbon. Note that the diagram is also honest about the leaks - respiration, methane, carbon washing out to sea. Delta Blue Carbon's accounts for the leakage, which is exactly why a verified tonne is worth more compared to a planted tree.
Now, back to Blair's question:
A retired credit is genuinely one tonne removed and permanently cancelled, and nobody else can ever claim it. But, emissions are a flow, not a one-time debt. Until we'rea able to eliminate all emissions from our supply chain, we'll be responsible for emissions every production run. Last year's purchase covers last year's tonnes and nothing else. We will continue to measure our emissions annually and retire annually.
Durability isn't infinite. Fossil carbon sat underground for a hundred million years; mangrove sediment is measured in centuries. A cyclone, or a return to unmanaged grazing, could put some of it back in the atmosphere. Any brand telling you otherwise is selling you something.
To manage this risk, Verra has instituted critical safeguards including holding back a share of every credit issuance as insurance, as the area is monitored and reverified for decades. The project employs and involves local communities to ensure that sites remain 'permanent' with community participation and involvement.
Since the majority of our carbon emissions arise in Pakistan, we feel it is right to invest in Pakistani programs. Through our carbon credits purchase, we don't claim to have solved anything permanently. Right now, our account is current, and we'll keep paying our balance.
One more thing: offsetting is the last resort, not the first. The emissions we never create are worth more than the ones we pay to remove. A well-made shirt you wear for a decade is a bigger climate decision than anything on our carbon ledger.
- Hasan