Copernicus Educational Products – Impact Report 2022
Our Vision
We want to redefine what a successful business is: To do work that matters. To be directed and shaped through a social and environmental conscience.
We have a responsibility as a manufacturing business to consider the needs of people and the planet alongside profit. Focusing on profit alone is not going to leave a healthy planet for future generations. This report summarizes much of what we are doing to become a more environmentally sustainable and socially responsible company.
We still have a long way to go.
Our pathway to Net-Zero 2030
2023
Our original goal was to estimate our Scope 3 emissions for base year 2019 by 2023 but we were able to complete this estimate in 2022.
2025
Goal: Reduce upstream product-specific emissions by 50% from base year 2019.
Goal: Achieve carbon neutrality with the help from carbon offsets.
Goal: Identify 70% of our absolute Scope 3 emissions (Category 1 Purchased Goods & Services).
2030
Goal: Reduce Scope 1 emissions by 50% from base year 2019. Complete installation of non-greenhouse gas-producing heat source.
Goal: Reduce Scope 2 emissions by 50% from base year 2019. Complete installation of more solar panels.
United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals
The United Nations has created Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to help highlight global challenges and create solutions to improve our world as a whole. Of the 17 UN SDGs, eight apply to our initiatives:
• Zero Hunger
• Quality Education
• Clean Water and Sanitation
• Affordable and Clean Energy
• Decent Work and Economic Growth
• Responsible Consumption and Production
• Climate Action
• Life on Land
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SDG7: THE NEED FOR CLEAN ENERGY
Goal: Reduce Scope 1 emissions by 50% from base year 2019. Complete installation of non-greenhouse gas-producing head source by 2030.
Goal: Reduce Scope 2 emissions by 50% from base year 2019. Complete installation of more solar panels by 2030.
Solar Energy
Our facility in Arthur, Ontario, Canada is powered with approximately 7% solar energy. We are in the planning stages of a large solar panel installation that will provide approximately 100% solar energy. Once installed, those panels will also be tied into the public electricity grid. We also work closely with our global suppliers to help them reduce their environmental impacts. For example, we worked with the final assembly supplier in China to reduce their reliance on the electricity grid (which uses coal to generate its power), and they are now operating on approximately 100% solar energy.
Energy Efficiency
In the beginning, Copernicus operated within a repurposed military facility that was rebuilt on our property. The rest of the building was added as the business has grown. However, old and retrofitted buildings are not always the most energy efficient. To address this, we have installed heat pumps in our front offices to reduce our reliance on propane heating, increased our insulation, and sealed any gaps in doors, windows, and walls.
We are also working with a fellow B Corp, Enviro-Stewards, to perform an energy audit on our facility to ensure we continue to make the appropriate improvements to reach our carbon reduction goals.
SDG8: GROWTH & CONTINUOUS LEARNING
Goal: Provide all full-time employees with fair compensation, profit sharing, and opportunities for training and development.
We embrace and encourage our employees’ differences in age, color, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, language and other characteristics that make them unique. And this year marked the formal start of our diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. As a B Corp, we are required to gather, track and report diversity and inclusion statistics annually. This information enables us to develop policies and training programs, and to better support our employees.
• 100% of employees are paid a living wage
• 23 students on staff to impact employment and skills training in our community
• 51% of our work force is female
• 322 hours of professional development and training courses were taken by our staff in 2022
• 100% of full-time employees receive profit sharing
• 75% of our management team are female
SDG12: SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION
Goal: Reduce upstream product-specific emissions by 50% from base year 2019 by 2025.
Our products are the largest contributors to our total carbon footprint. Here are some of the ways we have been working to reduce their impacts. We have:
• Launched five new products constructed from bamboo.
• Launched a tub made with 100% post-consumer recycled plastic.
• Launched several outdoor products made of 100% recycled plastic lumber.
• Measured the carbon footprint of 20% of our current product line (so far) to make more informed changes to materials.
• Developed a Product Footprint Analysis template to provide transparency about each product’s carbon footprint.
• Developed a product label that leads educators to online resources about pathways to repair, reuse and recycle our products.
• Started building prototypes with scrap materials instead of new.
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Bamboo
Goal: For every bamboo product purchased, Copernicus will make a donation to conserve natural panda habitat through the World Wildlife Fund. In 2022, we donated a total of $4,048.
Bamboo is a renewable resource that grows quickly and sequesters carbon, unlike steel which produces carbon as it is manufactured.
Every time a bamboo cart with recycled tubs is purchased over a steel cart with regular tubs, we save approximately 54% or 19.2 kg of CO2e. That's how much CO2e is generated by driving 77 km or 48 mi in an average gasoline passenger car!
Bamboo has a higher tensile strength than steel. This means that if you pull on a piece of bamboo and a piece of steel, it will take more force to break the bamboo.
Bamboo is extremely fast growing, up to 3 ft or 1 meter a day. To learn more about how bamboo grows, read our blog post on How Does Bamboo Grow?
Our bamboo supplier is Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI) certified. This ensures that they uphold worker standards and have environmentally responsible processes.
Recycled Plastic
Some of our products are made of recycled plastic, like our tubs and outdoor plastic furniture. Recycled plastic diverts waste, like plastic bags, bottles and yogurt containers, away from our landfills. It prevents plastic from entering our waterways and natural ecosystems. It also reduces the impact of acquiring and creating new materials, which produces a great deal of greenhouse gases.
Packaging
Goal: To remove 99.9% plastic from our packaging by the end of 2023.
We are still working towards our plastic packaging reduction goal. Our initial deadline was June 2022 but we are in the final testing phase.
• A success this year was eliminating all external plastic strapping incoming from China, by switching to staples. We are working on making the same change with Canadian made items.
• A challenge we are still working to overcome is the use of cable ties to hold parts in place within the box during shipping. We are testing our own engineered solution, a natural and biodegradable rope and a small plastic clip that can be reused by our customers. Until we can find a non-plastic solution for the clip, we will be 99.9% plastic-free (from our original goal of 100% plastic-free).
Our new paper pulp packaging used on some of our easels is plastic-free and easier to unbox and recycle. Watch our unboxing video to learn more.
Waste
Goal: We have set a goal for 2023 to have a waste management system in place.
At this time, our manufacturing processes make waste. While we make every effort to reduce waste, we will continue to measure and work to find cycling pathways to divert it away from landfill.
We diverted over 75,000 lbs or 34,000 kg of waste from the landfill in 2022.
Composted
• 31 bales of non-recyclable cardboard
• 15 bags (95-gallons) of paper towels
Recycled & Reused
• Over 5,600 lbs/2,500 kg of 6 different types of plastic
• All scrap metal is taken to local metal recyclers (total weigh not available
• 1 bag (95-gallons) of sawdust at time of publishing)
• Food scraps from our kitchen in our own
• Over 33 lbs/15 kg of batteries compost bin that we use on our gardens
• 326 MDF pallets for use as greenhouse heating and animal bedding
• Repaired over 116 wooden pallets for reuse
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Suppliers
We have implemented a Supplier Code of Conduct and perform periodic site visits to our Tier1 suppliers. We are developing a Supplier Audit Process that assesses employee safety and well-being, environmental impacts, water quality, energy consumption, and waste management.
Supplier Spotlight: Warren’s Waterless Printing
A few years ago, we moved to a print-on-demand approach to our marketing materials to reduce wasting resources when information becomes out-of-date. Partnering with Warren’s Waterless Printing also helps us reduce our impact, and they also align with our values. Here’s how:
• They are the first and only dedicated waterless printer in Canada
• Through their waterless printing process, they eliminate the use of approximately 200,000 liters (52,834 gallons) of water annually!
• They use FSC-certified and 100% recycled paper
• They offset all of their energy use with power generated from a renewable source through Bullfrog Power
• They offset all printed material through Carbon Zero
SDG13: COMBATING CLIMATE CHANGE
Goals: Reduce Scope 1 & 2 emissions by 50% from base year 2019 by 2030. Reduce upstream product-specific emissions by 50% from base year 2019 by 2025.
We have estimated our carbon footprint using Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s Global GHG Value Chain Accounting and Reporting Standard. The standard includes the three scopes businesses use to measure their metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2e) across all of their business activities.
Scope 1: Direct emissions from sources that are controlled by Copernicus, mainly heating our facility
Scope 2: Indirect emissions from purchased electricity
Scope 3: Indirect emissions from our operations and supply chain, mainly the products we manufacture
We’ve selected 2019 as our base year because 2020 was not a typical year for us due to the pandemic.
• Our Scope 3 emissions for our base year have been updated since our last report and will continue to be updated as we find more accurate data to use in our calculations.
• Our emissions have increased because we have sold, and therefore, manufactured more products.
Carbon Offsets*
Goal: To be carbon neutral, with the assistance of carbon offsets, by 2025.
As we measure and reduce our carbon emissions, we want to balance the amount of greenhouse gases we produce, which we accomplish by purchasing carbon offsets. Our criteria for offset projects includes retiring their offsets when purchased, having a long-term plan, and transparency of fund use. Buying offsets is not the solution to climate change, but it is a helpful step as we work on reducing our carbon emissions.
We offset 3082 mt C02e offset in 2022: 45% from Land Use Protection Projects, 48% from Renewable Energy Projects and 7% from other Community-Based Projects.
The following offset projects were verified and registered through one of the following standards: American Carbon Registry, Climate Action Reserve, Gold Standard, UN Clean Development Mechanism.
• Katingan, Indonesia Peatland Protection Project
• Niagara Escarpment Forest Carbon Project
• Honduras Cookstove Project
• Rajasthan, India Solar Project
• Cumberland Plateau Forest Protection Project
• Mexico Improved Forestry Management Project
• Solar Power Project at Bhadla, Rajasthan, India
*As of December 31st, 2022
Year Scope 1 Scope 2 Scope 3 2019 (Base Year) 78.5 Mt CO2e 3.5 Mt CO2e Approx. 5,141.4 Mt CO2e 2021 78.2 Mt CO2e 4.3 Mt CO2e Approx. 6,185.8 Mt CO2e 2022 85.1 Mt CO2e 4.4 Mt CO2e Approx. 6,875.8 Mt CO2e
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SDG15: LAND CONSERVATION
Biodiversity loss is one of our biggest global issues currently. Deforestation, destruction of land and waterways for material extraction, pollution due to the burning of fossil fuels, and other factors are all contributing to the steady decline in plant and animal species that support our planet’s ecosystems.
As a manufacturer, we know we contribute to this problem. As we work to reduce our negative environmental impacts, we are also investing in protecting biodiversity through land conservation:
• Set and exceeded our goal to protect 1,000 acres by 2022 (1,430 acres protected).
• Donated 1,430 acres of wilderness land containing provincially significant wetlands to the Muskoka Conservancy and Escarpment.
• Biosphere Conservancy which protects and preserves land for future generations, including 188 acres that has not been logged in over 70 years.
• Continue to restore our 90-acre property, that was once farmed, back to its natural ecosystems.
• Allocate the majority of our donation budget to environmental conservation.
• Protected 190 acres of Copernicus-owned land through conservation agreements.
Boreal Wildlands Project - Canada’s largest private land project
This year, we donated above and beyond our typical contribution to the Nature Conservancy of Canada to support their new Boreal Wildlands Project. This is Canada’s largest ever private land conservation project that protects 145,000 hectares /1,450 km2 and will support many species and ecosystems. Our donation will protect approximately 2000 acres of this space. Learn more about this project.
Carbon Sequestration
Recently, we had a third-party forestry consultant measure the carbon sequestration of our protected properties*. Their calculations indicated that they sequester approximately 2,355 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide (Mt CO2) per year. This is anticipated to increase as the canopy cover grows over time. It makes all the hard work of preserving land like this worth it.
*Excluding the recently protected 190-acre property
Trees for Schools
Every year, Copernicans pack up tree seedlings and wildflower seed packets that are then donated to schools across Southern Ontario on Earth Day (April 22). This year, we donated 5000 tree seedlings and 2000 wildflower seed packets.
• 5,000 trees.
• 2,000 wildflower seed packets
• 198,425 trees donated since 2009
• 11,527 wildflower seed packets donated since 2017
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Boreal Wildlife Project. Image courtesy of Nature Conservancy of Canada
