Friday, April 22, 2011

Overstock.com Ties Into Carbon Offsets

Heading into Earth Day today, Salt Lake City-based online discount retailer Overstock.com has launched an effort to offset its shipping for certain products. Overstock said Thursday that it has tied with Carbonfund.org to offset its purchases from products purchased from its Worldstock Fair Trade inventory. Overstock.com said it will mitigate the carbon dioxide emissions from delivery of its Worldstock Fair Trade items via Carbonfund.org. Worldstock Fair Trade is the department of Overstock focused on handcrafted products from developing nations and the rural U.S. Carbon offsets are the purchase of "credits" meant to offset the effects of carbon dioxide emissions. Those credits generally go to projects expected to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere, including tree planting and renewable energy projects.