Environmental Impact

Updated October 8th, 2020

Our part in the environment and you
Makeship is Canadian company that produces hundreds of thousands of products each year, which leaves an impact on the environment in all stages of its lifecycle. This page describes our environmental impact and what we are doing to tackle climate change.

What are we doing?
Makeship currently does the following:
  1. We offset the carbon dioxide emissions from manufacturing and transportation (Jan 2020)
  2. All our products come in reusable bags (April 2020)
  3. Mailer bags come in compostable bags (October 2020)
Carbon Offsetting

For every plush toy made, we make a donation to  Forests International for the recapturing of carbon dioxide through the plantation of trees in Canada and Zanzibar.

More concretely, we calculate the amount of CO2 produced, and donate $50 per tonne of CO2 to Forests International. This is one of the highest dollars per tonne of CO2 recovery in the world, but we think it’s worth it to focus on tree plantation rather than buying carbon credits from solar panel installations.

With these donations,Forests International not only restores lost forests, but also creates agricultural and business opportunities for these communities. This way you get your quality plush toy, while reducing your impact on the environment.

We are also taking action in reducing the overall amount of greenhouse gases emitted, by looking into cutting our use of flight for product transportation, which currently is our highest greenhouse gas emitting activity.

 

Responsible Packaging

Starting in April 2020, all our packaging is reusable, and our mailer bags are compostable.

Your plushie comes in a bag that can be used multiple times so don’t throw it away! We want to make sure that our products create the least amount of impact during the whole lifecycle of your plushie, including packaging. 

The mailer bag that your product arrives in is made out of biodegradable materials, so make sure to compost it.

Quantifying the Damage

Scope

In general, there are 3 scopes to quantify greenhouse gas emissions:

  1. Scope 1: Direct emissions from manufacturing and transportation activities
  2. Scope 2: Indirect emissions that are controlled by the company doing manufacturing and transportation; for example, emissions created while generating electricity for manufacturing.
  3. Scope 3: Indirect emissions not controlled by the company such as employee travel, wastewater treatment, and resource extraction.

 

Currently Makeship is working to solve Scope 1 emissions with a plan to completely neutralize them by 2022, at that point we will move into Scope 2 emissions.

The Calculations

Makeship currently offsets Scope 1 Greenhouse gas emissions by looking at the raw materials and carbon dioxide emissions generated by manufacturing and transporting products.

To produce a 100 gram Polyester plush toy it takes:

  • Energy: 12.5 MJ
  • Hydrocarbons (oil): 0.15 kg
  • Water: 1.7 L
  • CO2: 300g of CO2 emitted

Source:https://oecotextiles.wordpress.com/2011/01/19/estimating-the-carbon-footprint-of-a-fabric/

To ship a plush toy across the world via airplane it takes:

  • Mass: 100 grams
  • Distance: 9000 km
  • CO2 produced: 1607 grams

Source:https://timeforchange.org/co2-emissions-for-shipping-of-goods/

Using these calculations, we can estimate how much carbon offsetting needs to happen. The numbers also indicate to us that the biggest contributor to our emissions is our current use of air transportation. We are working on moving into boat transportation to minimize these emissions.

What are we working on next?

Our job is far from over. We understand that there are a lot of activities that produce carbon emissions as a direct result of our company’s activities. There are also many other areas of improvement regarding our manufacturing process, and materials used, but we are working on them!

Our next goals include:

  1. Reduce CO2 and other gas emissions from transportation and manufacturing
  2. Carbon offset all manufacturing and transportation emissions by 2022
  3. Increase the scope of our work to secondary and tertiary levels
  4. Restore water and other chemicals utilized when manufacturing 
  5. B Corp and other certifications
Read More and Donate

If you would like to read more about this and donate to climate impact causes, please take a look at the following websites:

 

Forests international:https://forestsinternational.org/

Calculate your own ecological footprint:https://www.footprintcalculator.org/

What you can do to fight climate change:https://davidsuzuki.org

Sustainable Waterloo Region:https://www.sustainablewaterlooregion.ca

 

Get your company on the path to fight climate change.
Have feedback? Shoot us a message at team@makeship.com we’d love to chat! :)