Beyond Carbon Neutral to Carbon Positive

Biome is proud to be on a mission to ensure we go beyond 'carbon neutral' to draw down more emissions than we release from our operations and supply chain, plus take additional actions that make a greater positive contribution to the environment.

We know the world needs to stop using fossil fuels and reach a point of not adding any more emissions into the atmosphere, but we also need to remove some of the carbon dioxide that is already in the air and oceans because it will keep on heating the planet for many years.

Outside its direct operations, there are many further aspects of a business' supply chain and ingredient sourcing that contribute to emissions, but are not counted when most businesses achieve 'carbon neutrality'.  For example, ingredients from palm oil, which is a significant contributor to global warming - and that is why we do not offer any products containing palm oil at Biome. 

In 2019, Biome was one of the B Companies that committed to being Net Zero by 2030 on the world stage at the UN Climate Change Conference.

Net Zero goes beyond just being carbon neutral in the business operations we control, it is also the carbon footprint from all aspects of our supply chain and product sourcing. To learn more about the full scope of emissions, scroll right down to read more.

Our plan involves:

Reduce emissions we release.
Offset at least the balance.
Be leaders in spreading the word.
Centre people and justice in all we do.
Invest in carbon removal or draw down projects.
Achieve net zero for our operations and supply chain by 2030 or sooner.

How we offset the impact and emissions of our business

Reduce or eliminate

Whether you are a business or an individual, the most important step that we can all do is to reduce emissions in the first place. At Biome we:

Use LED lighting and switch off lights and equipment when not in use

Take responsibility for the ingredients in the products we offer. For e.g.

No products with palm oil- the production of palm oil is a huge contributor to global warming
No paper or wood that are not FSC certified
Organic cotton - grown without the petrochemical fertilisers that produce significant emissions
Minimising plastics
Offering refill stations and ingredients to make your own package and plastic free products

Reduce our waste and facilitate wider recycling

Turn waste cardboard into filling for our parcels to give it a second life and avoid buying other fill
Send all soft plastics to Redcycle for recycling
Send all other hard to recycle items to Reverse Garbage, Terracycle and organisations such as World's Biggest Garage Sale
Compost
Provide our customers with a recycling service for our products such as personal care, plus and extensive list of other items we facilitate recycling for

Minimise flying, or when we do, purchase offsets direct from the airline.

Offset

100% Carbon Offset Parcel Deliveries

Our parcels are sent using Australia Post who provide us with the data on the CO2 emissions generated across their network.

Based on the parcels we shipped in the past 12 months, we purchased carbon offsets through Carbon Positive Australia to offset 100 tonnes of carbon emissions.

Did you know?  An Express Post parcel generates 2.5 times more CO2 emissions than a parcel sent by standard service.  If you are not needing your parcel urgently, our standard delivery is the greenest choice.

Electricity for our warehouse and six physical stores

We have been paying a premium for renewable energy (or GreenPower) at our locations since Biome began. One of stores is located at Burwood Brickworks, the most sustainable shopping centre in the world, that has its own solar power.

Environmental projects

To offset the broader emissions and environmental impact of our operations we donate to many environmental projects each year, including:

Greening Australia's Reef Aid project
Koala and other Australian native species conservation organisations
Orangutan conservation organisations

What we did for World Environment Day, 5 June 2021

We offset the household emissions for one day of everyone who shopped at Biome - in our stores and online

How it worked:
For everyone who places an order online or shopped in our stores on World Environment Day we automatically donated to Carbon Positive Australia to plant native trees and restore natural habitat on their behalf!

One day's emissions are based on an average Australianhousehold's lifestyle emissionsof 17 tonnes of CO2 per year, or47kg per day.

About Carbon Positive Australia

Six million trees planted to restore native habitat

We chose Carbon Positive Australia because we love that they take a nature-led approach to restore natural habitat and biodiversity by planting native trees and shrubs that are indigenous to the area.

Over their 20-year history, they have restored almost 5,000 hectares of unused and degraded land across Australia, planting six million trees!

Carbon Positive Australia only plant biodiverse native species, specialise in ecologically-sensitive solutions for carbon planting, and monitor the ecological outcomes.

Learn more about their current planting projects

Learn more

What you can do

Offsets are just part of the journey to fight climate change—we all can help by reducing our personal emissions before they're even created:

Switch off lights when you leave the room
Ride instead of drive
Eat locally grown food, and grow some of your own
Reduce deforestation for palm oil by avoiding products with palm oil

Measure your emissions

"What gets measured, gets improved!"

Carbon Positive Australia has launched a free Carbon Footprint Calculator that empowers individuals to understand and reduce their impact.

Learn more

What is the full carbon footprint of a business

The international accounting tool, the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, categorises greenhouse gas emissions into three groups or 'Scopes'

Scope 1: Direct emissions from sources that we own or control such as our company vehicles.

Scope 2: Indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity

Scope 3: Indirect emissions that occur in a company’s value chain such as goods and services purchased, use of the products sold by the business, business travel, employee commuting, waste disposal, transportation and distribution such as shipping online order parcels, and banking and investments.

When a business declares itself "carbon offset" or "carbon neutral" it puts a boundary around the emissions that are included and those excluded from the assessment.

What is net zero and other terms

NET ZERO is like a set of scales:  on one side, greenhouse gas emissions are released tipping the scales one way; on the other, emissions are taken out of the atmosphere through carbon sequestration such as tree planting, regenerative agriculture, seaweed farming and innovative new technologies.  

Net Zero means reducing all greenhouse gas emissions to zero and then to repair past harm by drawing down carbon

Even once we phase out fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) and replace with renewable energy, we will still need to remove all the emissions we have already put into the air and oceans.

When land is deforested for agriculture and wood, and soil disturbed, carbon is released into the atmosphere.  In the case of palm oil, it is not only the deforestation that causes emissions, but also the destruction of the massive peat bob carbon sinks of south east asia, and the fires that are lit to burn off the areas where trees are cut down.

All the while more and more carbon is being released, the more we will eventually need to remove from the atmosphere to reach net zero.

ZERO CARBON means that zero carbon emissions are being produced in the first place by the product or service, such as 100% renewable energy.

CARBON NEUTRAL describes a business where the carbon emissions released by the business have been balanced out by carbon offsets.  In Australia, a claim to be 'carbon neutral' requires certification by an official scheme.

CARBON POSITIVE and CARBON NEGATIVE are almost interchangeable, though carbon positive means the activity goes beyond net zero carbon emissions to create additional environmental benefit.

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