We are thrilled to announce that StatusGator is now officially Climate Neutral Certified. This achievement marks a significant milestone in our journey towards a more sustainable and environmentally-conscious future.
Months of Dedication in the Process of Certification
Over several months, we embarked on an extensive mission to measure, reduce, and offset the carbon footprint associated with our brand. Although StatusGator is a small team with a tiny impact, we believe it’s important to lead by example. Becoming carbon neutral is crucial in our commitment to “flatten the curve” of carbon emissions.
Collaborating closely with the Climate Neutral team, we followed three fundamental steps: measure, reduce, and compensate.
Measuring our Impact
Our initial focus was measurement, encompassing three distinct scopes: Scopes 1, 2, and 3. The result of our assessment was a calculated carbon footprint of 25 tCO2e. This included the analysis of emissions across all the stages of delivering StatusGator: from our usage and that of our team to the travel we do as a company and the servers, hardware, and cloud hosting used to keep StatusGator up and running. We measured the total usage by our company using Climate Neutral’s software.
Our Reduction Strategies
After measuring our usage, we developed a series of time-bound Reduction Action Plans, aimed at reducing StatusGator’s carbon emissions within the coming 12-24 months. We based our action plan on advice and information from Climate Neutral. These are steps we can concretely take to reduce our usage. Our 2023 carbon reduction steps include the following actions:
- Action 1: Implement server efficiency measures to reduce energy consumption by removing unused servers in ancillary projects.
Explanation: StatusGator operates entirely in the cloud but the easy ability to spin up servers and instances in the cloud means we sometimes have capacity we are not using, especially for projects, ideas, and products we have not fully implemented. This action item will bind us to reduce that cloud server usage. - Action 2: Implement a policy for low-carbon business travel to require carbon-free travel for offsite meetings.
Explanation: We are a distributed team and do most of our work remotely. However, when we do meet in person we are committing to doing so using carbon-free travel methods. For example, our next in-person company meeting will be held in a dense urban environment where we will collectively bike and walk. We will no longer hold meetings where driving is required.
Compensation
We offset our emissions by investing in verified high-quality projects. These projects adhere to the Climate Neutral Standard and are instrumental to accelerating climate progress and compensating for StatusGator’s current greenhouse gas emissions.
We chose to invest in the North Maine Woods Project. It is a conservation initiative spanning 92,000 acres near the Canadian border within the largest undeveloped forest in the eastern U.S.
The Project focuses on sustainable forestry management and carbon dioxide removal, estimated at around 3 million metric tons over its lifetime. Leveraging carbon revenues to facilitate loan repayment and further land purchases for sustainable forestry, the North Main Woods Project forms part of a 4.5 million-acre landowner co-op. The project safeguards a wildlife habitat, including black bears, a high-density moose population, and Canada lynx, and protects wetlands with unique butterfly and moth species, promoting biodiversity and ecological connectivity.
Join Us in Fighting Climate Change
We’re thrilled to stand alongside a growing community of Climate Neutral Certified brands, each contributing significantly to the cause of climate action. It’s important to note that this journey isn’t limited to businesses alone. Every individual and every entity can make an effort to “flatten the curve” of carbon emissions.
Discover how you too can embark on a path that fosters environmental responsibility. For more information, visit climateneutral.org.