There’s something pretty much everyone on the planet has in common. And it’s that Crema coffee is their favorite. (Kidding; that would be a weird thing to have a blog post about.) All jokes aside, let’s talk about the real reason we’re here.

We all have a carbon footprint. 
 

As we move throughout our day, many of our actions (car/air/train travel, using non-renewable electricity, food production/waste, etc.) emit greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane. The total amount of these emissions is known as our carbon footprint. While each of us can make changes to decrease our carbon output, it’s nearly impossible to decrease our carbon output to zero. But, all hope is not lost!

We can offset our carbon footprint.
 

Welcome to the conversation: carbon offsets! To compensate for your carbon emissions, you can purchase quantifiable offsets that will essentially neutralize your carbon footprint (a.k.a. becoming ‘carbon neutral’). These offsets fund specific projects (reforestation, building renewable energy, land conservation, etc.) that either lower or remove emissions from the atmosphere. We’re proud to share that Crema has been a carbon neutral company since the beginning of 2020.

As you may already know, Crema Coffee Roasters follows zero waste practices, diverting over 95% of our waste from landfills. Purchasing offsets and becoming carbon neutral was the natural next step in our commitment to sustainability. To calculate Crema’s carbon footprint, we gathered information on distance traveled to work by each employee, all shipping costs and distances (including web store orders, retail products, paper goods, ingredients, etc.), utilities, the roasting operation and any other business-related travel.

Every six months, Crema purchases carbon offsets through Cool Effect. We chose them because they triple verify the science behind every carbon project they represent and are fully transparent with where each dollar goes. Learn more about their ‘Carbon Done Correctly’ approach here.

In the past we have support projects such as Tennessee Chestnut Mountain Project, Cup of The Amazon, Trash to Treasure, and Seeing the Forest for the Trees.

Most recently, we’ve purchased a portfolio of offsets that are distributed across all of Cool Effect’s projects so we didn’t have to choose just two!

While purchasing carbon offsets and becoming a carbon neutral business is not a perfect solution, it’s one way we can take responsibility for Crema’s carbon footprint and care for our planet. Here’s some things we do to help decrease our total carbon footprint: compost with Compost Nashville and recycle with Earth Savers so over 90% of our waste is diverted from a landfill, we use an electric car for all deliveries, all of our to go containers are 100% compostable, give discounts to customers who bring in their own cup/tumbler/mug, package coffee in bins/buckets that we wash and reuse for some of our local wholesale partners, and we’re constantly looking for more ways!

You can purchase offsets for your own carbon footprint with Cool Effect — they make it super easy right from their homepage noting the average American carbon footprint; you can offset 3 months, 6 months, 1 year or 2 years at a time. You can also offset any travel you do too! If you want to dig deeper into calculating closer to your ‘exact’ carbon footprint, you can use tools like this and input your own tonne amount to purchase offsets.