At Voya we believe it is fundamental to offset our carbon emissions for all aspects of our business.

The cost to offset your carbon emissions is likely to be very small compared with your energy costs, often costing less than 2% of your spend. At Voya we use two methods to do this, firstly we work with carbonfootprint.com who help us to calculate and then offset all our companies, personal & cargo carbon emissions annually.

Then we also use an app, Offset, which is integrated with our online store and calculates the carbon emissions on our customer orders, such as the transportation of the parcels that are sent from our warehouse in the UK to our customer addresses.

Through these companies we are able to offset our emissions mainly through tree-planting projects in the UK & Deforestation projects in the Amazon Rainforest. So we are actually able to offset the carbon, plant and protect forests and biodiversity in 2 continents at the same time.

The projects we support:

Through carbonfootprint.com we are able to invest in high quality international carbon reduction projects, making our business carbon neutral, and helping us to achieve our CSR goals.

  

They offer a range of projects, which support biodiversity, provide habitats for endangered species and support developing communities. Reforestation and avoided deforestation carbon offset programmes are the most popular as they tackle one of the most potent threats to our planet. However, they also have more community and energy focused projects. Many of them also provide additional benefits such as biodiversity, education, jobs, food security, clean drinking water and heath & well-being in developing countries. 

Our annual donation is allocated across various international projects, but we are also part of a UK tree planting sponsorship with South Wales schools. We love the fact that these projects are working directly with UK children in their school grounds, making it an educational project as well as developing their school grounds, supporting local wildlife and of course, improving the air quality at school.

  

For every tree that we pledge in the UK, as a sponsor, we also save a tonne of carbon in the Brazilian Amazon, through the VCS avoided deforestation programme. So we are actually able to offset the carbon, plant and protect forests and biodiversity in 2 continents at the same time. 

Offset calculates the cost to neutralize our emissions through our international postage from our warehouses to our customers, and uses our funds to protect forests. Together with Offset, our contributions are currently funding the Jarí Para REDD + Avoided Unplanned Deforestation project in the Amazon Rainforest, a Verified Carbon Standard project certified by Pachama.

Located in the tropical Amazon rainforest of Brazil, this project covers almost 500,000 hectares of land. It is a massive conservation effort, for an area rich with biodiversity, diverse plant species of ecological and social importance, the project additionally serves a crucial role as an ecological corridor that connects several conservation areas in the surrounding region. 

The Amazon rainforest is one of the most incredible natural wonders on Planet Earth. Often referred to as the ‘lungs of the planet,’ 20% of the world’s carbon is absorbed by the Amazon alone! Beyond carbon, the Amazon is also home to 10% of the world’s known species (2.5 million insect species alone), and 40,000 plant species (many of which are the basis of our pharmaceutical medicines). 

The Jari Pará project location is particularly critical to the fight against deforestation. The project is at the forefront of active deforestation in the region and is looking to stop the continuous encroachment of illegal timber harvesting. The current political environment in the region is making this effort particularly challenging. While the project is seeing some smaller areas of deforestation happening within its bounds, contributions from companies like us, provide the region with more resources to deploy ranger patrols to combat illegal harvesters. Jari Para seeks to generate employment and income for communities, while simultaneously ensuring the conservation of the forest.