Elissa Foster is our Head of Sustainability. (Say hi, Elissa! Everyone, say hi back!) She dives deep in numbers, research, and some scary eco-facts, to help us become the most sustainable toilet paper company out there!

Tracking our carbon footprint is a big part of this journey, and we know many of you have been curious about those numbers too. So, we sat down with Elissa to get the scoop!.

First things first, what is a carbon footprint?

Basically, it’s the total amount of greenhouse gasses (GHG) like carbon dioxide and methane produced by an individual, event, organization, service, place or product, expressed as a carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Just like you have a carbon footprint, so does every corporation. Here’s a fun fact: the average carbon footprint for a person in the United States is a whopping 16 tons per year, making it one of the highest in the world! In contrast, the global average sits closer to 5 tons.

(But here’s a twist: the concept of a personal carbon footprint came from a marketing campaign for a certain oil company in 2005! They encouraged folks to calculate their personal footprints and suggested ways to go on a ‘low-carbon diet’— all in the name of shifting the blame of climate change from fossil fuel companies to consumers. Yikes!)

So should we take a carbon footprint seriously then?

Absolutely! From a business perspective, a carbon footprint gives us a baseline understanding of how much carbon is produced as a result of our operations and growth. With this knowledge we can then investigate the parts of the business that generate the GHG emissions, and bring in solutions to cut them back.

Ok, so what do you know about Who Gives A Crap’s carbon footprint?

Great question! We’ve been on a research spree, auditing our processes and crunching the numbers. And guess what? We officially have a third-party verified carbon footprint for Who Gives A Crap and our parent company, Good Goods! (If you’re into technicalities, this verification follows ISO 14064-3:2018.)

*Note: this is our total carbon footprint and doesn’t account for the fact we offset our transportation GHG emissions, which make up about 20% of our total emissions. You can read more about that below!

To put that things into perspective, 70,605 MT CO2e is the equivalent of 15,213 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles being driven for one year.

Oof, that seems like a lot. How did you measure the carbon footprint?

We partnered with global impact consultancy Edge Environment to do a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) on our products. This analysis of the energy use and GHG emissions across all life cycle stages of our products, including manufacturing, transporting and usage. After that, we multiplied the final figure by the number of products we sold in FY2022. 

Where do the majority of your carbon emissions come from?

About 60% of our GHG emissions come from making the parent (or mother) rolls. (They’re huge reels of tissues - like, bigger than a human - that are transformed into our finished products, aka TP rolls that fit on your bathroom holder.) Another 10-20% of our emissions come from the production of our packaging, including the cardboard cores in the center of the toilet paper and kitchen towels. The final 20% come from shipping and deliveries, from manufacturing locations to customers' doors. 

Now that you have all these numbers figured out, what are you doing to reduce your carbon footprint?

We’ve been super busy tackling our emissions!

Low carbon products:

Our top priority is providing sustainable, low-carbon products. That’s why we only offer alternative fiber (recycled or bamboo) tissue products. We use recycled paper in a good portion of the items we make and sell - for context, our LCA determined that recycled toilet paper has a 22% lower carbon footprint than TP made from virgin trees. We’re also working to switch our kitchen towels and facial tissues from bamboo to recycled fibers. 

Carbon neutral shipping:

Our shipping is 100% carbon neutral! We calculate the GHG emissions that come from transporting our products from the factory to our customers, then purchase high-quality, third party-verified carbon credits that match or offset those emissions. We started doing this in September 2020 and have committed to keeping this going so our shipping is always carbon neutral. You can read more about it here and here.

Electric vehicles:

Exciting news: we’re transitioning our warehouse-to-customer transportation in Australia to electric vehicles! This is a huge step, and while it’ll take some time, we’re thrilled that two Who Gives A Crap branded EVs will be hitting the road very soon! Keep an eye out for them!

Renewable energy:

We’ve teamed up with our warehouse and manufacturing partners to use renewable energy in our supply chain. In fact, we helped our Australian warehouse add solar panels (in the shape of the word ‘CRAP!’) to their roof! It’s pretty thrilling that the sun is providing around 46% of the building’s energy now. And this is just our first step towards greener supply chain operations. 

Domestic manufactured products:

In 2022 and 2023 we started making paper goods in the US and the UK (ie. they’re produced in the country where they’re sold). This has reduced carbon emissions from shipping, as well as from the manufacturing process, which is super exciting! As we grow, we'll keep looking for ways to make our products more sustainable and delightful for you and the planet.

So what does all this mean for the company as a whole? Will Who Gives A Crap become carbon neutral?

A business is considered carbon neutral when it measures its carbon emissions and then reduces or offsets an equal amount. While Who Gives A Crap isn’t completely carbon neutral just yet, that’s definitely our goal! We’re actively working on reducing emissions from product manufacturing by increasing renewable energy use and energy efficiency in our supply chain. We’ll keep you posted on our progress and new eco-friendly initiatives through this blog!