Nothing But Net (Carbon Footprint)
Carbon neutrality means that there is a balance between the amount of carbon emitted during the manufacturing and production processes and the amount of carbon absorbed from the atmosphere into carbon sinks. This removes carbon oxide from the atmosphere and stores it, doing something known as carbon sequestration.
A carbon sink is any system that absorbs more carbon than it emits—namely, soil, forests, and oceans. The carbon stores in these natural sinks are then released into the atmosphere again through land use, forest fires, and logging.
Doesn’t that make you want to get in on the action? Well, Mezcal Rosaluna is a carbon neutral brand that calculates our low carbon emissions every year and then pays for the offsets, allowing you to feel good about what you’re drinking.
Going Green
We believe that the onus to “go green” and set a good example for clients, customers, and employees is on companies themselves. The more that companies go green, the easier it will be to encourage other companies to do the same thing. This is especially important because when business—however small—band together, they can have a huge impact on the state of our environment.
An Oldie But a Goodie
Individuals may not be able to make a huge impact all at once, but if we are able to reduce, reuse, and recycle on a regular basis, it is possible to impact not only the planet, but how things are manufactured. By supporting companies that are green and don’t use single-use plastics or devastating manufacturing processes, you will in turn push other companies to do the same thing.
Of course, buying reusable shopping bags, avoiding plastic water bottles, and going paperless whenever you can helps as well. Setting up water filling stations at your office, setting an example during meetings or with your printing process, and even instituting vegan meals when there is a company-provided meal can also help to set an example. When it comes to sustainable practices, the more is really the merrier.
Knowledge Is Power
It’s important to educate people about the impact of their daily choices (and how those choices might lead to lower or higher carbon emissions). Talking to everyone (from the front desk staff, to the CEO, to the delivery department) about how to be more environmentally friendly can help reduce a company’s footprint at work and even at home—people who are educated continue to make better decisions when they are off the clock.
Surf Responsibly
It’s not something we think about often, but keeping the Internet up and running takes a lot of power. Green web hosting is a popular trend right now that focuses on reducing carbon footprints. You may not realize it, but the internet is largely run out of warehouses that produce ridiculous amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.
Eco-friendly website hosting takes their carbon emissions and pays for them. There are more and more companies popping up all over right now, and they are putting pressure on the bigger hosts to do the same thing. The magic of setting a good example...
Keeping It Vegan
Another great way to reduce a carbon footprint is to go vegan. The meat industry, in particular, releases a ton of carbon into the atmosphere, both in the raising of cows and pigs for consumption and in the manufacturing process.
Even going vegan or vegetarian for a few days a week can have a big impact on your personal footprint. Good thing Rosaluna is vegan, too.
Paying It Forward
While aiming to lower your carbon emissions as much as possible is very important, it’s impossible to emit nothing. Carbon offsets compensate for the emissions of a company by canceling out the greenhouse gas emissions somewhere else in the world. Your money buys or supports programs that have been established to reduce emissions. Often, this will be in conjunction with nonprofits and companies that have special certifications.
Doing the Math
At Mezcal Rosaluna, our process starts by planting baby agaves and then nurturing them for eight years. We use our very own hands to maintain them, clean them, and check for freshness. And of course, we use Oaxacan soil that is filled with nutrients and only the good, natural stuff. Eight years later, the agaves are harvested and taken to an underground pit where they are placed atop a stone-buried fire and roasted for five days. They are then taken to the mills and extracted.
Everything we do uses hands, horses, traditional, green processes whenever possible. We calculate the carbon emissions we give off from production, store shipments, shipping to stores, and online sales, and then try to pay those off in our daily practices.
The Only Option
We’re all in this together. At the end of the day, it isn’t up to individuals to change their lifestyles to make the biggest impact on climate change and carbon emissions—it’s up to companies. Mezcal Rosaluna is a carbon neutral Mezcal manufacturer not only because we want future generations to be able to enjoy Mezcal too, but because we take the health of our planet seriously. Mezcal Rosaluna is gluten-free, non-GMO, vegan, zero-carb, and entirely plant-based, too—because we care about the health of our people, too.
To us, there is no other option. We need to take sustainability seriously, so we can continue to live, love, and drink on Mama Earth for generations to come.
Sources:
What is carbon neutrality and how can it be achieved by 2050? | News | European Parliament
How Green Web Hosting Works (and Which Eco-Friendly Providers to Consider) | WHSR
How to Buy Carbon Offsets | NY Times
