We’ve got the whole world in our hands
You might remember this song from when you were young, but the lyrics hit a little differently now, because as of this moment in time it’s true. According to NASA, the Earth’s average surface temperature has increased about 1.8 degrees in the last 100 years, 2017 was the hottest year on record so far.
If we don’t begin to step up and do our part, scientists estimate that by 2100, the Earth could possibly become anywhere from 0.5 – 8.6 degrees hotter, not cute. This should alarm you, even if you hate the snow and cold weather, we need to maintain our planets ice caps and glaciers. The hotter it gets, the faster they melt, which causes rising sea levels, threats to oceanic life and can threaten our fresh water supply (this is just the tip of the iceberg, get it? Iceberg?). Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s start with a quick breakdown on how our planet functions, don’t worry this will be quick.
The atmosphere that surrounds planet Earth is made up of a bunch of gasses, about 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen and a small amount of other gasses. You might have heard of some of these other gasses, greenhouse gasses. Originally these gasses were produced naturally, byproducts of animals, soil and certain bacterias here on Earth. As we orbit the sun, ultra violet light (or UV) from the sun enters our atmosphere, some of the heat the sun kicks out gets trapped by the greenhouse gases, and the rest bounces back out into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gasses that trap heat are amazing, because it’s what keeps our planet warm. As Earth evolved, so have we as people.
We have smartphones, smart cars, smart everything! Heck yeah, progress is dope but we need energy, like a lot, to create, supply and maintain these things. Everything from cars to electricity, the food you eat to the clothes you wear, and yes even your skincare needs energy and resources to be produced and maintained. This means burning oil, gas, and coal (aka fossil fuels) in excessive amounts to keep up with demand. When you burn fossil fuels, they release a bunch of different greenhouse gasses, on top of Earths naturally produces. These greenhouse gasses will trap the heat that would normally escape our atmosphere. This increases the temperature on earth and has that butterfly effect that creates climate change.
When running low on gas is a good thing
Ok, so greenhouse gasses in excess are a bad thing, but what/who are they?
- Carbon Dioxide is all around us at all times, it is carbon and oxygen mixed together creating CO2. It is a natural substance. When we see large oil and coal companies burning fossil fuels, it produces an extremely high and unnatural amount of CO2 making this the largest offender when it comes to global warming. As of right now, the USA is the second highest in the world when it comes to CO2 emissions.
- Methane is made up of carbon and hydrogen. It is a gas that gets released from rice fields, wet lands and…how do I say this politely…cow burps and farts. Methane traps a lot of heat, like a lot, and leads to global warming. To put this in perspective, one cow can produce up to 200 kg of methane a year, image what an entire cattle farm would produce?
- Water vapor, or H2O, is water in a gas form. We need it to have clouds and rain and provide us with some cooler weather. However, it can also block heat from escaping, so it winds up getting warmer. This causes water to evaporate, and can continue to keep happening, which isn’t ideal. Have you noticed the lake by your house getting lower and lower every year?
- Ozone is important up where it belongs, way up in the air…like airplane level, the stratosphere. The ozone layer is what protects us from intense UV damage from the sun. However, burning gas in your car and certain factories emit ozone down here on the ground and is a dangerous greenhouse gas. Think about the hole in the ozone layer and how dangerous that is, and it’s coming from your car.
- Nitrous oxide, yeah we’ve all seen one of the ten thousand Fast and Furious movies, so we know that nitrous oxide, or NOS if you’re down with street racing, is a gas that makes your tricked out car go super fast. What you may not know is that it is a natural gas emitted by bacteria that you can find in the ocean and in soil. Yet, power plants, factories and plant fertilizer can emit nitrous oxide and create major damage to our already damaged, delicate ozone layer.
- Chlorofluorocarbons, that’s a long word for a very dangerous gas. It isn’t found in nature, this toxic gas is purely man made. This one is on us. It can damage the ozone and is a super powerful toxic greenhouse gas. The most common emissions of chlorofluorocarbons comes from air conditioners, refrigerators and aresol cans. Please put the hairspray down. There is really no good part to this one, it’s just bad.
Ok, but why are my feet involved?
Carbon footprints. I mean sure, we all are striving for a smaller one, but why? A carbon footprint correlates to the amount of greenhouse gases that are produced by you, wether you mean to or not. Take a moment answer a few questions to find out just how big your carbon foot print is. Each one of the following questions will be worth a certain amount of points, the smaller the amount of points at the end the smaller the footprint, the larger…well you get it.
Home Life
- Do you live in a single family home?
If yes, give yourself 4 points - Do you live in an apartment or another type of shared living situation?
If yes, give yourself 2 points - Do you have an energy efficient appliances or a thermostat that you can program?
If yes, subtract 2 points. If no, add 2 points - Do you use energy efficient lightbulbs?
If no, give yourself 1 point - Do you unplug electronics when you are not using them?
If no, give yourself 1 point - Do you recycle your household trash regularly?
If no, give yourself 2 points - Do you compost your yard and/or kitchen waste?
If no, give yourself 1 point
Personal Lifestyle
- Are you vegan or vegetarian?
If yes, give yourself 1 point. If no, give yourself 2 points - Do you eat organic food?
If no, give yourself 1 point - Are you a water waster? (Do you leave the faucet on when you brush your teeth, wash dishes or you a frequent bath taker?)
If you answered yes to any of those, give yourself 1 point - How many small cars are in your household?
What about large cars (SUV’s, minivans, etc) Give yourself 1 point for every small car and 2 points for every large car - Do you use public transportation, or a bicycle or skateboard or something non-electric to get around town?
If yes, subtract 2 points - Think about pre-covid, how many times you fly on a plane last year.
Give yourself 1 point for every time you walked through TSA and flew on a plane. - Do you smoke cigarettes or vape?
If yes, give yourself 2 points - Are you a thrift store junkie?
If you choose second hand to fast fashion, subtract 2 points
If your score is a single digit number, you are doing well and should strive to get that number even lower. If you are in the double digit zone, it’s time to make some changes.
Sustainability is sexy
After reading this you might be a little freaked out, and that’s pretty normal. The good news is you can begin to take steps today to make changes for our future. One of them begins with your Hishi products. For starters, we are committed to not testing on animals, and partner with a lab who hold the same regards and standards. The lab we have chosen to partner with holds over 75 years of experience and has a focus on ethically sourcing ingredients and continuing to develop actions regarding non-deforestation and sustainable palm oil, we knew right away this was the lab for Hishi.
Working with this awesome lab we are able to focus on small batch processing. What this means is we only do on demand production, which allows us to reduce waste on ingredients and unused material such as bottles, cardboard for the boxes and the brochures. We just produce what we sell. Speaking of packaging, it is also making a difference. Every product purchased from Hishi you can rest assured that all paper, cardboard packaging, and plastic used for the bottles are 100% recyclable. We are even beginning to take huge steps to becoming a zero-carbon business, and are looking into sourcing other alternative materials such as glass and aluminum.
We at Hishi also want to help the environment as well, so for every product purchased, 30 trees will be planted. How’s that for offsetting your personal carbon footprint? We truly have thought of everything and have a commitment to improving our environment. We are constantly adapting and implementing changes that will in turn have a positive change in our world. Not only have you made an excellent choice in your skincare product but you have made an excellent choice for helping to save our planet.