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As we have our climate at heart, we compensate the unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions of all Swarovski.com deliveries and returns. We do so by supporting a selection of verified and high-quality climate action projects through our partner South Pole. Contrarily to what many other companies do, we do not expect our customers to pay a premium for the offsetting, but we cover the cost ourselves.​

South Pole develops comprehensive strategies that turn climate action into long-term business opportunities for companies, governments and organizations around the world, and has been at the forefront of decarbonization since 2006. South Pole is also a leading project developer, and has provided nearly 1,000 projects in renewables, forestry, agriculture, industry, households and public institutions in over 50 countries. Through climate finance South Pole has saved over a gigaton of CO2 emissions, provided social benefits to less privileged communities who are particularly vulnerable to climate change and helped create nearly 100,000 jobs in developing countries.

Our greenhouse gas reduction strategy​

Title:
Compensating our unavoidable emissions via certified climate projects is obviously only one of the key actions we are undertaking. Core to climate strategy is our SBTi (Science Based Targets initiative) membership. Last year we committed to reducing absolute scope 1 and scope 2 emissions by 47% and scope 3 emissions by 28%, by 2030. 

To date, and from the 2019 baseline, we have already reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 12% and Scope 3 emissions by 26%. We continue to invest substantially in our manufacturing, distribution, processes and policies to accelerate our greenhouse reductions and operate in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement.

A complete climate strategy presents all methodologies, including reduction, removal and offsetting.
In fact, in addition to our ambitious reduction plans and the climate projects with South Pole, we also recently signed a 5-year agreement with Climeworks, to actively remove CO2 directly from the atmosphere.
The truth is that every climate solution out there (when certified and additional) is valid. It is important to take all the measures and solutions available, and not just one. This is why, with South Pole, we chose 3 key projects to diversify our impacts into the areas of biodiversity protection, biogas capture and hydropower.
Our South Pole Initiatives

Huóshuĭ Small Hydropower​

Title:

Clean energy for China’s remote mountain communities​

Subtitle:
More than a century ago, our founder Daniel Swarovski was already harnessing the power of water. He established a crystal-cutting factory in Wattens (Austrian Tyrol) to take advantage of hydropower for the grinding processes he had patented with the vision to create “a diamond for everyone”.​

Similarly, the powerful rivers of China's mountainous areas can be harnessed to generate electricity for its remote communities and the wider region, but hydroelectric power plants require substantial investment to set up. Prior to the project, local communities experienced poor living conditions. At a time when 80 percent of Chinas energy demands were met by coal-fired power stations, these communities had unreliable access to electricity and there was little regional investment.​

Huóshuĭ Small Hydropower consists of 95 small hydropower plants. The small-scale plants range in capacity from 0.1 to 14 MW, and together supply enough renewable energy to power over half a million average Chinese homes each year. Their run-of-river design allows them to do so with minimal environmental impact.​
  • Project standards: SocialCarbon, VCS Verified Carbon Standard​

Impacts:​
  • 369,000 tons of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalents) mitigated each year (SDG13)​
  • 740,000MWh of renewable energy generated annually (SDG7)​
  • Contributions to United Nations SDGs 4, 8 and 5.

Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve​

Title:

Preserving Borneo's tropical peat swamp forests and improving local lives​

Subtitle:

The Rimba Raya peat swamp forests are located in Central Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo in Indonesia. Before the project was established, these immensely biodiverse tropical peatlands were scheduled for conversion into four palm oil estates by the provincial government.​

​The Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve protects 91,215 hectares of rich, tropical peat swamp forests which are monitored by local rangers as well as by satellite and aerial imagery. As well as preserving ecosystem diversity and the habitat of endangered species like the Bornean orangutan, the project reduces emissions by avoiding the planned deforestation of over 47,000 hectares of forests for palm oil production.​

​The Rimba Raya project not only sequesters carbon and protects habitat for local wildlife; it also promotes local sustainable development, particularly regarding environmental education and economic capacity building.

Project standards:

  • Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) Standards (Verra)
  • VCS Verified Carbon Standard (Verra)


Impacts:​

  • 2,162 water filters distributed
  • 47,237 hectares protected
  • 3,500,000 tonnes of CO2e mitigated

Lan Dokmai Waste-to-energy​

Title:

Reducing climate impacts and helping with sustainable biogas​

Subtitle:

Thailand is one of the largest producers of Tapioca starch, which forms an important part of the economy. Unfortunately, starch production is a carbon-intensive process that not only damages the environment but also produces strong-smelling methane emissions from the wastewater that affect the quality of life in surrounding areas.​

Rather than allowing the methane to escape freely into the atmosphere, the project captures the gas in order to produce clean electricity. This electricity powers production at the local starch factory; as a result, the air is cleaner and less fossil fuel needs to be purchased. This means that revenue can be generated to support social and educational activities in the community.​

With less methane emissions, the quality of the air surrounding the plant has improved dramatically. In addition to this, new jobs and training opportunities for modern technologies are provided by the project. The treated wastewater is much cleaner and can be used for fish farming and irrigation of nearby fields, even the wastewater sludge is given to farmers and recycled for fertilizer.​

Just like the renowned Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4) is also a greenhouse gas (GHG), so its presence in the atmosphere affects the earth’s temperature and climate system. Methane is emitted from a variety of anthropogenic (human-influenced) and natural sources. Methane is the second most abundant anthropogenic GHG after carbon dioxide, accounting for about 20% of global emissions, and is also more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Therefore, reducing methane emissions has a significant effect on limiting global warming.

Project standards:
•    Gold Standard (WWF)
•    CDM Clean Development Mechanism (UN FCCC)

Impacts:​

  • 20,000 tonnes of CO2e
  • 2,100 m2 of cleaned wastewater
  • 2,200 litres of fossil fuels saved

Frequently Asked Questions

What are carbon credits and how do they work?

Carbon credits are measurable, verifiable emission reductions from certified climate action projects. These projects reduce, remove or avoid greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. But they also bring a whole host of other positive benefits, for example, they empower communities, protect ecosystems, restore forests or reduce reliance on fossil fuels.​

Projects must adhere to a rigorous set of criteria to pass verification by third-party agencies and a review by a panel of experts at a leading carbon offset standard like Verra or Gold Standard. After an organization or an individual buys a carbon credit, the credit is permanently retired so it can't be reused.

What makes a good climate action project?

The key is in the detail. High-quality carbon credits adhere to a strict set of standards. You can check this by ensuring the projects you invest in are registered with a third-party internationally-recognized verification standard, such as the Gold Standard, Verra's Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), Social Carbon and Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standards (CCBS), or standards verified by the UNFCCC. These standards also highlight additional benefits beyond carbon – all South Pole projects contribute to at least 3 of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. This could be improving health, creating better education opportunities, improving wildlife conservation or even building sustainable communities.​

How do I know that the emission reductions are actually happening? What does additionality mean?

The ICROA-approved (International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance) verification standards all South Pole-related projects adhere to ensure that the project is real, verified, permanent and additional.​

For transparency, carbon credits are assigned serial numbers and are issued, transferred and permanently retired in publicly accessible emission registries.​

Additionality means that the reductions in emissions achieved by the project must be “above business as usual". That means they would not have happened unless the project was implemented. By purchasing high-quality and verified carbon credits you are directly funding climate action and sustainable development.

What are the different types of climate action projects?

Projects reduce or remove the amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere in at least one of three ways.​
  1. The first avoids greenhouse gas emissions, for example replacing fossil fuel-derived energy with energy from renewable sources.
  2. The second removes emissions from the atmosphere, for example, planting more trees, which sequester - or capture - carbon from the atmosphere and store it in liquid or solid form.​
  3. The third captures and destroys emissions, for example capturing methane–a GHG many times more potent than carbon dioxide–from wastewater.​

Our global partner South Pole has hundreds of different climate action projects, which cover the following areas:​
  1. Nature-based-solutions (reforestation, land restoration, forest protection, sustainable land management and agriculture)​
  2. Renewable energy (hydropower projects, wind projects, solar power and geothermal)​
  3. Community projects (improved cookstove technology, access to safe water)​
  4. Waste-to-energy (biogas from landfill or industry, and biomass).

Sustainability at Swarovski

Acting responsibly has been ingrained in our values since 1895.