Carbon offsets are a practical and effective way to reduce the effects of climate change by funding renewable energy, forestry, or clean water projects. These projects reduce emissions of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases in order to compensate for emissions made elsewhere, like the emissions created from ordering something online. EcoCart calculates the emissions created from your online orders and donates the exact dollar amount required to reduce those emissions directly to these projects on your behalf.

When we say orders will be “carbon neutral,” that means that we will eliminate, capture, or otherwise mitigate all of the carbon emissions created from shipping your online orders. “Net zero” is another term you might hear and it’s simply another way of describing what happens with carbon offsetting.

EcoPoints are what make up the free EcoCart rewards system. You earn EcoPoints every time you make your order carbon neutral with EcoCart that you can redeem for earth-saving rewards like planting trees or giving clean water to families. OR you can use your EcoPoints just like cash, and redeem them for gift cards at your favorite stores!

EcoCart offers a few ways to find stores that support sustainable shopping. With the extension installed, you can: 1) Just shop like normal and EcoCart will notify you when you’re in a store that supports carbon neutral shopping. 2) When you search for stores on Google, participating stores will say “Shop Sustainably” next to the website name. 3) Or you can browse participating stores that offer carbon neutral shipping through the EcoCart extension.

Our algorithm uses the unique characteristics of each order, including product type, shipping distance, and item weight to estimate the shipping emissions created by that order. Since each store uses a different shipping method, we assume a standard mix of shipping transportation that includes sea, air, and truck.