Leaders from countries around the world recently gathered at the COP 26 –the UN (United Nations) Climate Conference – to discuss how to accelerate combat to global warming, one of the Sustainable Development Goals that the world must achieve by 2030.
In the negotiations, there was a lot of discussion about how to eliminate gas emissions from the greenhouse effect by 2050, protect forests and use less fossil fuels. All this so that the Earth's temperature does not increase more than 1.5oC.
Read also: 4 practices to combat the intensification of the greenhouse effect
But it is not just governments that have a role to play in protecting the planet from climate change. Companies can (and should) also collaborate to achieve global warming reduction targets.
At iFood, for example, we won't wait for 2030 to arrive. The goal of iFood Regenera, our action plan to have a positive environmental impact, is to neutralize 100% of our greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.
To achieve this, we are already measuring, reducing and neutralizing these emissions in practice. In July 2021, we were the first delivery company to compensate in advance for all emissions from our deliveries in partnership with the startup Moss.Earth, a specialist in the carbon market.
After calculating how much carbon dioxide is emitted in our operations, we neutralize emissions by purchasing carbon credits. In this purchase, We generate resources that were invested in environmental preservation projects and reforestation and collaborated to protect 1,250,000 square meters of Amazon Rainforest in the second half of 2021 – an area the size of 125 official football fields.
Reduction of emissions in deliveries
Another initiative to reduce gas emissions during deliveries was to invest in non-polluting modes. In 2020, we launched the iFood Pedal, a partnership with Tembici, a leader in micromobility, to offer affordable electric bike rental plans to couriers in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
In 2021 we made more than one million deliveries using electric bicycles and 21 million deliveries using conventional bicycles, which together avoided the emission of 292 tons of CO2. The initiative was so successful that the program was extended to four more capitals (Recife, Salvador, Brasília and Porto Alegre) and the fleet should reach 2,500 electric bikes in 2022.
With these and other initiatives, we want to inspire partners and customers to be part of this movement of action to reverse climate change. Today, with one click, anyone who orders a meal on the app makes donations to protect the Atlantic Forest. Restaurants can benefit from our investment in clean energy and reduce emissions and electricity costs through the Chef's Advantages program.
This is just the beginning. We know that we still have a long way to go to regenerate the environment. That's why we made a permanent commitment, at iFood Regenera, to increasingly reduce emissions and collaborate to protect Brazilian forests. And we have already started to act, because the planet cannot wait.
