100% carbon-neutral shipping 

Our shipping is 100% carbon-neutral. This includes shipments from our suppliers to us and shipments from our company to our customers. We do this by purchasing carbon offsets on an annual basis from Carbonfund.org, the world's leading nonprofit in carbon offsets. We encourage you to visit their website to learn more about the great work they're doing.

How it works

We keep a record of our orders that includes the distances the parcels travel and by what method (air, land and sea), including all the parcels we receive from our suppliers and all the parcels we send to our customers. We input this information into Carbonfund.org's calculators to determine the amount of atmospheric carbon (in tonnes) these shipments produced. Then, at the end of the year, we purchase carbon offsets for this amount to bring our net carbon to zero.

Why annually?

Our shipments to customers are small enough and our volume enough that each package produces a small amount of atmospheric carbon whose cost to offset would be less than $0.01 to $0.05. Accounting for our carbon on an annual basis in one lump sum makes more financial sense to us and to Carbonfund.org than doing so in innumerable small charges.

Why Carbonfund.org?

We want the monies paid to have the greatest impact, so we chose to support Carbonfund.org, the world's largest nonprofit dealing in carbon offsets.

We looked into several options for carbon-neutral shipping, including some options that integrate directly through checkout. The majority of suppliers of carbon offsets are for-profit companies, and it surprised us how much they charge versus how much goes to projects that offset carbon. With our average carbon offset cost per parcel at $0.02 or less, paying a transaction fee of $0.15 to $0.25 to the for-profit company so they give $0.02 to a project to us seems wasteful.

How much carbon has Three Bears Tea, SPC offset?

We have offset all our shipping carbon for 2020, a total of 3 tonnes of atmospheric carbon, and because the carbon came from shipping, we thougth it fitting to fund a shipping-related energy efficiency initiative, the Truck Stop Electrification project. Not only does the purchase offset carbon, it also helps to:

• Improve working conditions for the drivers who deliver goods when they're resting in their cabs
• Reduce noise pollution in and around truck stops
• Lower the amount of diesel fuel used to deliver goods
• Create new green jobs