Hi friend! The 2021-2022 edition of the ESS Mass journal was inspired by the beauty of God’s creation - we even launched on St. Francis’s feast day! Read below to learn more about our carbon-neutral shipping. As always, thank you so much for supporting our dream to create these Catholic Mass journals!
Did you hear? We’ve upgraded all our shipping to be carbon-neutral!
We’re so excited to share this news! We’ve been working with our warehouse and are excited to announce we are now providing complimentary carbon-neutral shipping on all orders!
Why did we make this decision?
Here at ESS, we are inspired by the beauty of creation - God is the ultimate Artist! We also take these words from the Catechism to heart: “Those responsible for business enterprises are responsible to society for the economic and ecological effects of their operations” (CCC 2432). With this in mind, we’ve evaluated multiple aspects of creating and shipping out ESS journals and made decisions to increase our sustainability, including in our shipping!
What does carbon-neutral shipping actually mean?
We get it - nothing we do, even breathing, is truly carbon neutral! However, by investing in projects that protect forests, we can offset the carbon emissions associated of shipping a package. We have offset all pre-orders that shipped last month and are offsetting future orders as well!
What exactly is a carbon credit?
A single carbon credit is the equivalent of one ton of carbon dioxide removed or directly avoided from entering the atmosphere. To be effective, purchased credits must cause an incremental difference over the “status quo” scenario - for example protecting a forest that would have been destroyed without the funding or leading to additional reforestation that would not have happened without the purchase of carbon credits. Additionally, the positive impacts need to be permanent - this is why we partnered with Pachama, as they use satellite imaging to verify carbon capture projects that are verifiable, incremental, and lasting.
What type of projects are supported?
We chose to support forest carbon projects - call us tree-huggers, we don’t mind! Carbon dioxide is stored in roots and branches, so preserving old growth forests at risk of deforestation and improving forest management to improve growth rates (and subsequent carbon storage) are effective, scalable methods for carbon capture. They also have the added benefit of protecting biodiversity and creating sustainable livelihoods. We’re currently supporting projects in both the USA and the Amazon.
Thanks for being on this journey with us!
We are not experts in sustainability, although we are loving the process of learning and improving as we go! In addition to implementing this carbon-neutral shipping, we use recycled materials whenever possible and are looking into additional ways to decrease our personal ecological impacts. We hope to share more of these sustainability focused changes we’ve made soon!
Kassie Manning is a daughter, wife, mama and co-founder of Every Sacred Sunday. After getting her Ph.D. in molecular biology and working in healthcare consulting, she took a leap of faith to make books. When not thinking about paper thickness and sample swatches, she can be found around Texas climbing tall rocks, searching for lost chapstick, or making pro/con lists about camper trailers. Come say hi here.