COP26 – What we’re doing to help fight the climate crisis

Hello there, eco-conscious crew.

If you’re not part of the eco-conscious crew, this blog is not for you. Get outta here.

Just kidding, you’re more than welcome – you might even learn a thing or two from us.

So, COP26 eh? What is it all about and why are we all talking about it? That’s why we’ve written this blog, so lucky you. We’re also going to chat about what we’re doing as a company to help fight the climate crisis we all find ourselves in.

Read on to find out what COP is all about! 

The lowdown

COP stands for Conference of Parties, let’s just get that clear now because otherwise you might be in for a very confusing read. The 26^th simply stands for the year – it’s the 26^th annual summit.

It’s taking place in Glasgow, with more than 190 world leaders arriving in the Scottish capital to talk about how to tackle global environmental issues for a total of 12 days. Think of it as a VERY long chat with your friends when you all spend the day at the pub and start solving every single problem you can think of. Only sober and more ‘official.

COP26 has been so hyped up this year because, if we look back at 2015 when COP21 took place in Paris, a huge thing happened – every country agreed to work together to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees and aim for 1.5 degrees – otherwise known as The Paris Agreement. Countries committed to bring forward plans setting out how they would reduce their own emissions, and every five years these plans would be reviewed and reflected upon.

Sadly, the commitments made under The Paris Agreement didn’t come close to 1.5 degrees, and the window for achieving this number is closing – 2030 will be a crucial decade.

Essentially, countries know they haven’t done enough, and COP26 is where we’ll realise just how little, or how much, progress has been made.

The whole thing is a tiny bit complex, as you can imagine, and you might get a little lost in the news around it or overwhelmed, but don’t worry, we feel the same.

What we do know is, we’re committed to helping fight the battle. Here’s how.

Cutting carbon

Reducing carbon emissions is a key goal for countries at COP26 as it’s one of the biggest contributors to climate change.

The race to Net Zero is a hard-fought, big one. With the UK aiming to achieve this goal by 2050. 

By using bamboo, we produce 65% less emissions than conventional tissue. Any carbon we do emit through our process of creating and shipping our products is then offset via the World Land Trust. This basically means that anything we put out, we put back in again via donations which help protect and develop the rainforest, otherwise known as one of the ‘lungs of the Earth’ because of its oxygen-rich ecosystem. 

To date, we’ve saved 32,500 tons of carbon. By 2025, we’re aiming to save 330,000 tons. 

Saving trees

Deforestation is devastating our lovely planet. One of the main focusses of COP26 is slowing the production of fossil fuels, but environmentalists say that chopping down trees has just as much of an impact on the health of the Earth.

Forests and trees help to stores carbon by capturing it from the atmosphere using photosynthesis. The carbon is absorbed and released by the trees as oxygen – trees absorb around a third of all carbon emissions worldwide.

So, if we chop them down to use for toilet roll and other products and materials, we’re releasing more carbon into the atmosphere which can’t be as easily absorbed by remaining trees.

That’s why we use bamboo – it’s regenerative, so we slice it above the root so it can grow back again and again.

To date, we’ve saved 250,000 trees. By 2025, we aim to have saved 3.2 million.

Reducing plastic

Alongside forests, the ocean is the other ‘lung of the Earth’ – phytoplankton (tiny lil green guys that float about the sea) provide us with around 50% of the oxygen we breathe, which is mad when you think about it. Thank you, lil green guys.

However, our oceans, rivers and other waterways are being polluted by single-use plastics. Since the 1950s, over 198 million tons of plastic have been dumped in the ocean.

Almost all plastic is derived from fossil fuels, accounting for 4-8% of the world’s annual oil consumption. This year, the UN reported that the impact of plastic production on the global climate this year will be the equivalent to the production of 198 coal-fired power plants. That’s a lot. 

Our products are all single-use and microplastic free – we even switched out our old, plastic loo roll packaging for paper back in 2020. We learned from our mistakes.

By reducing our collective plastic use, we can have a direct, positive effect on lowering carbon emissions and plastic pollution.

Since you made it to the bottom of this blog, you deserve a reward. Use code COP26 for 26% off our Earth-saving bamboo goodies! Ends on the 12th November at 23.59.