Imagined here as a feature on patagonia.com, shipping impact visibility builds awareness for green customers
The opportunity
Retailers have long understood the value in offering consumers product sustainability information and green purchasing choices. For online vendors, shipping is an easy place to start building brand loyalty through CSR. Brighter Planet CM1 can power integrated customer- or vendor-facing shipment carbon tracking and one-click carbon offsetting.
User-supplied zip codes and retailer warehouse location data combine for high-contrast emission estimates (example mockup here is backcountry.com)
Accurate calculations
Our transport models use carrier tracking statistics to model parcel shipping emissions based on package weight and routing, accounting for both ground and air transport using data from the EPA and WRI to deliver accurate, authoritative footprint calculations.
"Check to offset" is gaining in popularity. Here is a green shipping option from UPS
Mitigation options
Vendors can choose to offer shoppers the option of offsetting carbon emissions, by funding the construction of new small-scale renewable energy and sustainable forestry projects in communities across the US.
We built the Yaktrak prototype to investigate how consumer shipments move around the world, along with their associated impact
Proving the concept
We built YakTrak to show how existing shipping data can be mined for carbon insights. By integrating with the FedEx package tracking system, this simple web application monitors the progress and environmental footprints of shipments based on tracking number—insights useful to vendors, package carriers, and individual customers alike.