For online stores, sustainability is a significant consideration. Humanity's reaction to the destructive nature of capitalism's "expand or die" mentality is the rising trend of environmental sustainability. Sustainability in e-commerce can refer to anything from company strategies to product packaging, and in the years to come, it will play an even bigger part.
The awareness of sustainability and the environment has long been popular in e-commerce. Online retailers have been considering issues like corporate social responsibility and environmentally friendly supply chain practices for some time now in an effort to successfully satisfy the growing demands for sustainability from their customers.
EcoCart is a climate and sustainability-focused eCommerce enablement startup pitching consumers on ways to offset their carbon emissions for free at select merchants. The company offers two core carbon offsetting products: an eCommerce plugin for merchants to offer a carbon neutral order option at checkout and a free-to-use Google Chrome extensionthat calculates the carbon footprint of users' orders at over 10,000 stores and automatically offsets that impact by donating to independently verified carbon offsetting projects.
With the help of a few carefully chosen retailers, EcoCart, a startup company based in San Francisco, gives customers the option to offset their carbon footprints for free. Every time a consumer makes a purchase from one of the more than 10,000 partner stores, the company claims to offset the environmental impact of those orders. Customers receive EcoPoints in exchange for achieving milestone rewards like buying gift cards, planting trees, and providing clean water.
The company, which Peter Twomey and Dane Baker founded in 2019, receives an undisclosed commission from each order placed using the browser extension. The new business claims to have saved more than 8,000 trees, offset more than 4 million pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and assisted in powering more than 700 households.
The start-up business also provides businesses with a carbon accounting tool so they may determine their own carbon emissions. Additionally, ClimeCo and BlueSource, two environmental commodity companies, are used by EcoCart to assist businesses in finding and assembling financeable offset projects. Retailers including American Eagle, Glossier, PetCo, Kohl's, Sephora, Levi's, MeUndies, and many more have worked with the company.
New Funding for the Company
This morning, news broke that Base10 Partners had invested $3 million in EcoCart. The business did not specify how the fresh funding will be used, though.
"We think EcoCart is changing how brands communicate with their customers while also managing and mitigating their environmental effect at scale," said Chris Zeoli, principal at Base10 Partners. EcoCart is a solution that is assisting in reversing years of destructive climate change. As the founders of EcoCart work to establish carbon-neutral checkout as the new industry standard across a variety of sectors, including retail, micromobility, food delivery, and more, Base10 is pleased to be working with them.
The new company uses a unique algorithm to assess many aspects of package delivery, such as shipping distance, package weight, and shipping materials, in order to reduce carbon emissions (in and for the items). The company may estimate the emissions produced by each order using this data.
The Industry and Competitors
Other businesses in the browser extension industry include Cloverly and Honey. In particular, Cloverly emphasizes sustainability as a service, and Honey is a budget-friendly browser add-on. By giving clients the option to offset their carbon emissions and a decision on whether or not to reduce their environmental effect, EcoCart is able to set itself apart from each of these businesses.
It is admirable that TreeCard, a fintech startup with a plant-a-tree-as-you-spend business model, is on a quest to offset carbon emissions. They have raised $5.1 million to date. All these companies have a goal of making the environment safer and cleaner for future generations.
Sustainability is no longer just an important topic for us, but has worked its way up to companies, some of which have several hundred employees. Sustainability is attempted to suggest in terms of production, working conditions, manufacture and origin of the respective products or service. Startups in particular are leading the way as modern alternative flagships with sustainable and environmentally friendly innovations. More and more courageous and creative developers can be found, who bring their latest helpful inventions to the market.
Shout out to these people we call global society.
More information: https://ecocart.io