Innovation

Salt aims to revolutionize climate action by providing users with an intuitive interface that simplifies the process. To begin, users are guided through a questionnaire to calculate their personal carbon footprint, covering various aspects such as their home size, dietary choices, and how often they shop for new clothes. Once this calculation is complete, users proceed to the next step, where they can choose a project partner. These project partners actively contribute to offsetting carbon footprints through initiatives like planting mangrove trees in Kenya or preserving the Amazon in Peru. After selecting a project partner, users gain access to their personal dashboard that displays their monthly carbon footprint, statistics, and the impact they have made in offsetting carbon emissions for the benefit of the Earth. Lastly, users will have access to exclusive offers with Salt’s brand partners. Examples include e-commerce discounts, giveaways, access to member-wide sweepstakes, and exclusive events for the Salt community.

Salt’s carbon offsetting platform directly helps benefit the UN SDGs pertaining to Climate Action, Life Below Water, and Life Under Water. As a community, SDG 13 (Climate Action) asks people to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. This includes actions to combat the rising coral reef temperatures, rising sea levels, droughts, carbon emissions, and rising global temperatures. By simplifying the process of offsetting personal carbon emissions, Salt's platform not only enables users to actively contribute to climate action but also educates them on incorporating sustainable practices into their daily lives.

Chelsea Parker, a co-founder of Salt, emphasizes the significance of their platform, stating, "We have finally created a genuine solution for individuals, providing a platform that supports our personal journeys towards sustainability while allowing us to embrace and celebrate our unique identities and the richness life has to offer."

Inspiration

Salt emerged as a natural evolution from their initial platform, Treedom, which shared a common focus on rewarding individuals for their positive actions. Treedom, launched in 2018, provided students with an opportunity to earn scholarship dollars for engaging in community service. The underlying mission of incentivizing virtuous behavior has remained consistent throughout their journey. Chelsea elaborates, stating, "We’ve set our sights on building a contribution to our personal sustainability journeys while creating recognition and rewards for those contributions, in line with our mission from Treedom.”

The founding team set out on a journey to connect with potential project partners dedicated to offsetting carbon emissions. They also sought partnerships with brand partners that can offer rewards to their consumers. Chelsea explains, “A good product takes time - we wanted to build a really strong platform, work with project partners we have done our due diligence on, and create a premium experience within our brand's partnerships.” In just 6 short months, Salt was launched.

It was the core principle of rewarding individuals for their positive impact on our planet that inspired the founding team to build Salt. Chelsea tells me that now, “We have a platform that we want to use and a community that we want to join us.” Salt is one-of-a-kind, as it not only promotes a carbon-neutral lifestyle through innovative offset projects but also grants users access to exclusive perks as a reward for the positive steps they take for climate action. Driven by this vision, the founders built Salt into a reality.

Overall impact

The overall impact of Salt’s initiative is to make strides towards negating the effects of climate change and educating people of the importance of living a more sustainable life, while showing that it doesn’t need to be difficult. Users can use their own personal dashboards to watch their impact grow and share it with their friends and family, educating their communities on the importance of climate action and how simple it can be.

Whether it's planting trees in Kenya or helping to conserve the Amazon in Peru, Salt’s project partners are vital in helping track their overall impact. These endeavors not only have environmental benefits but also create job opportunities in Peru and Kenya, transforming landscapes and mitigating carbon emissions. Ideally, the Salt team looks to share an impact where “we see summers without skyrocketed temperatures, mountains without melting glaciers, coastal communities that aren't being washed away by rising sea levels, and forests that never see another wildfire.”

Business benefit

Salt’s platform has introduced a new market of how businesses can operate, that is, being rewarded for doing good. This new market has introduced a service that can revolutionize the way being sustainable can be. The Salt team has also established valuable partnerships with brands and organizations, collectively working towards combating climate change, with their brand partners also benefiting. Every time a Salt member utilizes a reward, such as a 15% discount at a coffee shop for the month, Salt offsets carbon emissions on behalf of the partnering company. This not only enhances the brand partner's corporate social responsibility but also facilitates their progress towards adopting more sustainable business practices.

Chelsea also says it’s important for them to “give people a way to educate themselves without an ‘all hope is lost’ undertone and from a judgment-free source. We know that nobody is perfect, and we don’t want anyone out there to feel that they can’t participate until they’ve reached what others have deemed as acceptable sustainability.” Education on climate change and sustainability is done through Salt’s blog posts, Instagram, collaborations with other brands, and other social media sites. Despite the prevalent “doom and gloom" associated with climate change discussions, Salt's aim is to present an educational approach that inspires individuals to take positive action without feeling overwhelmed or disheartened.

Social and environmental benefit

Salt is working towards the goal to offset 50 million tons of CO2 by 2030. It is a mission that their team believes in wholeheartedly, and they recognize that part of it is to build a community as well - a community of like-minded individuals that want to help benefit our society and planet Earth. Among that, they work with organizations that are helping conserve the Amazon in Peru and plant Mangrove trees in Kenya, benefitting the terrestrial environment and offsetting the carbon in the atmosphere. Mangrove trees are especially significant because they sequester up to five times more carbon than tropical forests. Mangroves also play a vital role in stabilizing coastlines, mitigating coastal flooding, and providing critical habitats for fish and wildlife. Additionally, mangroves serve as protected areas for young fish, shielding them from predators, and provide nesting grounds for various species. The efforts involved in this work are carried out by communities residing in Kenya. These initiatives not only contribute to the preservation of the environment but also bring valuable employment opportunities and foster economic growth within the region.

When discussing their long-term plans, Chelsea emphasizes that the ultimate goal is “to create a carbon-neutral world where we have systems and infrastructure that contribute to net-zero and a society that is rewarded for the part they play.”

Interview

Chelsea Parker, Co-Founder