What Does it Mean to be Climate Neutral? Here at Holden, we're on a mission to make heirlooms. Our goal is to handcraft a piece that you'll cherish and feel proud to pass down, which is why we make a donation to The Trevor Project for every ring sold and use recycled precious metals and ethical lab-grown diamonds in our rings.
That being said, we're aware that "sustainability" and "growing a business" are two goals that contradict each other in many ways. Because honesty is important to us, we're committed to being as transparent about our sustainability journey as possible.
One of the steps we've taken to become a more sustainable brand is through our work with Climate Neutral. We’ve been Climate Neutral Certified since July of 2021, which means that we measure and offset 100% of our carbon footprint. We love working with Climate Neutral because in addition to helping brands achieve carbon neutrality, they help companies set goals in order to reduce their individual carbon footprints. These actionable steps hold brands accountable to make sustainability a constant work in progress - there are always improvements to be made.
These are the three steps we took to become Climate Neutral certified through the non-profit:
1. Measure: Climate Neutral uses their own software tool to estimate how much carbon we emit when making and delivering our products and services (this includes diamond production and facilities, crafting our rings, shipping our rings and sizing kits, our storefront, etc).
2. Offset: Once we’ve calculated our emissions, we purchase something called carbon credits in order to either avoid and/or remove the equivalent amount of emissions we produced. Carbon credits are essentially certificates which are generated when someone takes action to eliminate or get rid of greenhouse gas emissions. Each certificate supports green initiatives such as reforestation (which removes carbon from the atmosphere) or renewable energy (which avoids emissions from fossil fuels). When we buy a certain number of credits, we offset our carbon emissions and become carbon neutral.
3. Reduce: The third and last step is to reduce. We work with Climate Neutral to develop and implement a carbon reduction action plan (RAP) so that we can reduce our emissions. These efforts include:
+ Packaging: We plan to increase the percentage of recyclable materials in our mailer boxes to 75% and will be eliminating plastic, foam, and excess materials from our product packaging.
+ Air Freight: We will work with vendors to shift production timelines and avoid overnight air freight as much as possible.
+ Sustainable Materials: In the future, we hope to purchase 100% recycled platinum to use for our casting process.
We are so proud to be partnering with Climate Neutral and are excited to continue to reduce our carbon footprint. To learn more about our environmental efforts, feel free to check out our sustainability page!
Questions? Give us a shout at help@hiholden.com or a ring (pun intended) at 646.722.6817.
