Support
Resources to answer common questions and help you navigate the program.
Program impact
a. Small businesses want to take action for the environment, but the infrastructure to do so can be costly. The Carbon Neutral Collective gives members the tools to become a part of the fight for the climate, without overinvesting in expensive resources.
b. Reconciling the scale of the climate crisis can be a challenge that appears too big for small actors to change. The Carbon Neutral Collective takes a small-scale aggregation model to solving big problems: similar to how we collect refrigerant in small amounts from individuals and companies all over the world, The Carbon Neutral Collective aggregates the impact that small businesses can make. All together, many small businesses can make a big difference.
c. Available sustainability frameworks often recommend solutions with varying long-term impact. The Carbon Neutral Collective prevents climate change by focusing on one of the top climate change solutions, according to leading climate change organization Project Drawdown.
a. As a small business ourselves, we understand how hard it can be to find the time and resources to make meaningful sustainability commitments. In The Carbon Neutral Collective, we built the program that we would want for our own business.
b. Many of the carbon neutrality programs that exist were not made for small businesses. Popular frameworks on the market assume that a business has a wealth of data and resources to tap into. As a small business ourselves, we know that is not the case. Many small businesses do not own their spaces and lack control over their utilities and other critical infrastructure that are the most common sources of meaningful reduction steps.
c. Tradewater offset credits are generated by permanently destroying some of the most potent greenhouse gases ever created under a process that is environmentally safe, easily quantified, and verified. Moreover, the refrigerant gases that Tradewater targets would never be destroyed in the absence of carbon offset projects. This results in high-quality offsets that exceed the latest commonly accepted standards as defined by The World Wildlife Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund, and other prominent organizations
a. We are running out of time to prevent catastrophic climate change and need everyone to do their part to reduce overall emissions. While the individual carbon footprint of a small business may seem modest, small businesses make up 99.9% of all United States businesses. Taken together, their contribution to global emissions is significant – and their opportunity to reduce emissions just as large.
b. Participation in the Carbon Neutral Collective is not only good for the planet – it is also good for business. Countless recent studies suggest that an increased commitment to sustainability can lead to increased profits.
i. A report from the Carbon Disclosure Project found that companies that make climate action a priority have an 18% higher return on equity (ROE) than peers without strong climate action policies and 67% higher ROE than companies that refused to disclose their policies.
ii. According to a 2020 report from IBM and the National Retail Federation, nearly 70% of consumers in the U.S. and Canada find it important for a brand to be sustainable or eco-friendly. Not only that, but of these consumers, over 70% report that they would pay, on average, 35% more for eco-friendly brands.
Program operations
The Carbon Neutral Collective is a means through which small and medium sized businesses can offset their business emissions and, in turn, fund projects to destroy potent greenhouse gases. Businesses begin by calculating their current emissions and agreeing to offset them through the purchase of offset credits. In purchasing these credits, members support Tradewater’s work to destroy greenhouse gases. Our teams actively seek potent refrigerants around the world and destroy them to balance out members’ business emissions. Meanwhile, back at home, businesses commit to a reduction plan that reduces their overall emissions for the next fiscal year.
a. Carbon offset credits purchased as part of the Carbon Neutral Collective are developed through greenhouse gas destruction projects executed by Tradewater’s global teams. These projects find and destroy the globe’s most potent greenhouse gases, preventing them from leaking into our atmosphere.
b. Though these harmful refrigerants are banned from production, there was no plan created to manage or destroy quantities already produced. It is estimated that existing supplies of some of the oldest refrigerants are equivalent to 9 billion tons of carbon dioxide. If we do not identify, collect, and destroy them, they will leak into our atmosphere.
i. Our latest white paper explains why our refrigerant destruction projects lead to the development of high-quality offsets that you can have confidence in.
c. Potent refrigerants can be found in auto shops, HVAC systems, and garages around the world. Tradewater focuses on the small-scale aggregation of these materials so that we can destroy the greenhouse gases they contain. Seeking refrigerant in commonly overlooked places has taught us that the small efforts of many actors will make an impact in the climate fight.
FAQ
Tradewater’s Carbon Neutral Collective is a group of small and medium sized businesses committed to reducing their carbon emissions and, together, building the collective impact needed to fight climate change.
The Carbon Neutral Collective is designed for small and medium sized businesses that want to make a difference in the fight against climate change.
a. The Carbon Neutral Collective empowers small and medium sized businesses to take responsibility for their carbon emissions in an efficient, impactful way.
b. The Carbon Neutral Collective gives small and medium sized businesses tools to measure the carbon emissions that result from their operations, a means to offset those emissions, and resources to make an emissions reduction plan for the future.
c. The Carbon Neutral Collective allows small and medium sized businesses to aggregate their environmental impact with those of likeminded businesses. When it comes to fighting climate change, many smaller actions add up: by participating in the program, small and medium sized businesses help to accelerate Tradewater’s projects to find, collect, and destroy some of the most potent greenhouse gases in the world.
a. The Carbon Neutral Collective refers to a group of small and medium sized businesses united around a shared goal to fight climate change.
b. We believe that big impact comes from many combined small actions. The climate crises will require action from all of us – it’s through these collective actions that we can slow the catastrophic rate of global warming.
a. Being carbon neutral means the net greenhouse gas emissions from all of a business’ activities are zero. In other words, 100% of the emissions that are generated through business’s operations have been offset, or “canceled out,” through the destruction of that same amount of greenhouse gases.
b. At Tradewater, we believe that carbon neutrality is more than just a label. It is a commitment to take concrete steps to prevent the release of greenhouse gases. Businesses who join the Collective will also commit to reducing their emissions over time, get their neighbors and customers to engage in climate responsible behavior, and support Tradewater’s projects to permanently destroy some of the most potent greenhouse gases ever produced.