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Life at Parachute

Parachute is Climate Neutral Certified!

woman gardening
Written By
Parachute Team
Photographs By
Jessica Schramm for Parachute
@parachutehome
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This Earth Day, we’re excited to announce that Parachute is Climate Neutral certified! Climate Neutral is an independent, non-profit organization working with brands and consumers to eliminate carbon emissions. This certification allows us to better understand and address our impact on people and the planet, and reaffirms our core belief in conscious consumption to build on our long-term vision for a sustainable future. With Climate Neutral’s help, we measured our total 2021 emissions, offset our footprint with verified carbon credits, and began implementing reduction goals in order to lower our total carbon emissions in the short and long term. You can see our annual carbon output, detailed goals, and progress on Climate Neutral’s website.

One area that we're most excited about is our goal to transition 100% of our cotton to organic by the end of 2024. Organic cotton can produce up to 94% less greenhouse gas emissions than conventional cotton, and uses less energy and water. We’ve projected that cotton will represent over 50% of our raw material consumption in 2022, so a move toward organic cotton can make a great impact on our overall emissions. 

With the help of Climate Neutral, our carbon offsets are supporting select organizations focused on reforestation and biodiversity, and you can read more about these amazing initiatives below. Our commitments to people and the planet are continuously evolving, and we’re looking forward to this journey of continuous learning, growth, and improvement. 

TIST Kenya

The International Small Group and Tree Planting Program (TIST) is an award-winning reforestation and sustainable development program representing more than 95,000 farmers across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and India – and empowering women is at the core of the program. To date, TIST participants have planted more than 10 million trees and 4.6 million seedlings.

TIST participants own the land and the trees and choose which species to plant depending on their needs, and trees are planted where deforestation has taken place. Planting trees stabilizes soils and reduces soil degradation, and fruit and nut trees provide food security to communities. Biodiversity also helps create more productive soil and reinvigorate native wildlife populations like bees.

Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve Indonesia

The Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve in Indonesia works to prevent peat swamp forests from being converted into palm oil plantations, and the project is Triple Gold ranked under the Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB) Standard. The project employs locals with higher salaries, provides grants for small-scale food producers, and increases access to affordable energy, clean water, health services, community infrastructure, and higher education.

The project protects a large portion of uninhabited peat swamp forest on the southern coast of Borneo in the province of Central Kalimantan, supporting orangutans and other endangered species as well as local communities along the eastern edge of the reserve. They also provide financial support to Orangutan Foundation International that rehabilitates and releases orangutans back into the forest.

Luangwa REDD+ Project Zambia

The Luangwa Community Forests Project (LCFP) in Zambia is the largest REDD+ project in Africa. They work with local communities to address socio-economic reasons for deforestation, like subsistence farming and collection of coal and fuelwood, and provide direct payments to communities in the Luangwa Valley that are protecting the wildlife habitat in order to further community development. The project works with community and government stakeholders to enhance conservation of the area, helps conserve Zambia’s largest hippopotamus population and parts of the Luangwa River, and they even created a wildlife corridor between five national parks.

National parks in the Luangwa Valley and the surrounding hills, including a large part of the Luangwa River, are prime habitats for endangered species. The project provides training in conservation farming techniques and promotes the cultivation of high-value crops such as soya, cowpeas and sunflower. Beekeeping has also been introduced and 6,000 beehives were distributed to participating households.

WithOneSeed’s Timor Leste Community Reforestation

WithOneSeed works with local communities in Baguia, supporting farmers in reforestation of land that’s been severely degraded due to farming in Timor Leste. They are dedicated to improving the resilience of subsistence communities, making environments sustainable, ending poverty and hunger, educating communities, and creating regional partnerships. Over 200,000 trees have been planted through the project. 

WithOneSeed is a social enterprise taking action on climate change through community forestry, actively engaging with local farmers and the community. Education activities focus on the benefits of restoring biodiversity to the forest of Baguia, as well as education about food security and nutrition. As part of the program, over 400 participating farmers have received Master Tree Grower training at the Agroforestry Training Centre.