Environment

Or: ‘How to be a sustainable company without lapsing into greenwashing?’

We honestly don’t know.

We understand that the production process we grew up used to is not sustainable at all, and we as a company feel like we must reduce our impact on the environment.

However, we also understand that every human activity, especially technological manufacturing, will always carry some carbon footprint.

In an ideal world, one should not be forced to choose between building instruments and, like, breathing, but that’s the reality.

While aware of this dilemma, we’re constantly testing new ways of compensating our activity, and this page is a sort of journal of our environmental path.

No one can be the ideal company, but we can do something to be at least a better one. Here’s a list of what we’re doing:

1. Shipping

All the sales shipping that we set up uses the DHL GoGreen service. According to their website, with this method, ‘all transport-related emissions of carbon dioxide are first calculated and then offset through external climate protection projects.’

2. Compensation and Management

We partner with Tree-Nation, a non-profit organization that help companies compensate their CO2 emission through reforestation.

Part of this project calculates the average impact of our company (employees, resources, shipping) and plants as many trees as needed to compensate for the CO2 emissions.

Another part aims to compensate for the environmental cost of this website, like the energy consumption caused by the hosting services. By counting the page visits, it calculates the average CO2 emissions and defines the offset needed to break even with the planet.

It is not that we are “zero-emission”: we still emit a ton of CO2 as human beings who produce things, but at least there are also more trees to compensate for it. You can keep track of our forest on this page: the top chart is the global compensation for the whole company, while the bottom one is specifically for the website.

3. Packaging

Our boxes are made of unprinted, partially-recycled cardboard.

4. Production

Our PCBs are manufactured by a local company powered by energy coming exclusively from renewable sources. It is also very close to our headquarters, so it is possible to stock the PCBs with few short trips during each year.

Next?

We know that there’s always more that we can do, and this page will likely update in the near future. If you have any suggestion on how we can get better at being more sustainable, feel free to drop us a line!