Impact Report 2018: Regenerate the Earth

With only 12 years left to solve climate change, according to a new UN study[1], it is no secret that we are facing a dire environmental crisis. This is why at Alter Eco we make sure to do our part in protecting and regenerating the Earth.  In 2018 we protected over 4,400 hectares of trees thanks to your purchases. We were also able to plant an additional 261 trees through our holiday gift box program. Yet this year, the world has also lost over 300 football fields worth of rain forest every hour[2]. This loss can be largely attributed to bad agricultural practices. Since agriculture and forests are equally as important as one another, it’s crucial we invest in solutions that regenerate our lands, instead of mainly extracting.

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[caption="Our agroforestry project in Peru", image="right"]

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Through a partnership with Pur Project and the farmers of the Acopagro Cooperative, we’ve found a solution. Through agroforestry and conservation projects, we’re working to replenish the rain forests in the San Martin region of Peru. This region was widely deforested in the 1980s due to coca production for drug cartels. Today, through these programs, farmers are able to maximize the utilization of their fields by planting high quality organic cacao crops and high value native trees at the same time. Cacao actually grows better thanks to the shade and the additional soil nutriments provided by the trees. At the same time, the farmers are able to use the trees for fruits and timber, thus diversifying their income and becoming less dependent on a single crop. The additional trees in the field enables a greater amount of CO2 to be captured in the air, improves the  soil quality and improves the water filtration for the ecosystem. This not only improves the output of the cacao plants through healthier soil, but improves the health and the livelihood of the producers who own the land. This is what we call full-circle sustainability.

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[caption="Saplings ready to be planted", image="left"]

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We take pride in being a carbon negative business offsetting more carbon emissions than we emit. We make sure that everything is included when we calculate our carbon emissions, from product production and shipment, office emissions, farmer emissions and end of life waste emissions. But that is not all. We also make sure that each of our employee’s carbon emission is covered, down to daily commutes. 

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[caption="Brett's CO2 emissions", image="right"]

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 [1] https://www.vox.com/2018/10/8/17948832/climate-change-global-warming-un-ipcc-report

[2] ¹Data from One Green Planet, 10 Facts you Need to Know about Palm Oil, 2014