By IANS,
New Delhi : To woo environment conscious customers, footwear and apparel brand Woodland said that it will convert all its stores carbon neutral by 2015 as a part of the company’s corporate social responsibility.
“We have initiated a process under which we will convert all our (retail) stores to become carbon neutral by 2015. The initiative also includes accurate accounting of the carbon footprint of each store,” Harkirat Singh, managing director, Woodland Worldwide, told IANS.
The term “carbon neutral” implies negation of carbon emissions emitted through any operations, by either offsetting the carbon released by buying carbon credits which are in the form of certificates or planting tress and using eco-friendly power sources like solar energy.
Changes in the transportation, energy consumption and operations process are also used by companies to go carbon neutral.
According to Singh, the new initiative which is a part of the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) was activated in July when the company started converting 80 of its stores in the national capital region and Karnataka into carbon neutral.
“The campaign is called Proplanet, through which we intend to negate the carbon footprint of our retail operations. We have also started campaign for planting of saplings,” Singh said.
The company has set aside around Rs.10 crore for the project per annum.
The company added that apart from reducing the retail carbon footprint, it intends to encouraged customers to use green products across all categories by providing incentives for every carbon credit earned by the customer.
“We will also spread awareness among our customers about the environment and carbon footprint and credits. We are encourage them to exchange their carbon credits with us for discounts of up to 15-20 percent on our products,” Singh added.
One carbon credit is equal to a tonne of carbon dioxide emission. There are two kinds of carbon credits, namely carbon offset credits that are earned by using environment friendly forms of energy like solar lighting, and carbon reduction credits.
Carbon reduction credits are earned by initiating measures like reforestation, planting of tress, maintaining soil erosion among others.