Skip to main content

Little Green Tree relieves shipping guilt with carbon offsets

Sure, buying your limited-edition Voltron action figure online instead of at the local comic book store may save you a 3.8-mile drive to the shop and back, creating the illusion of gas unburned and carbon still safely locked in 1988 Camry, but what about the UPS truck idling outside your door? And the semi truck that it arrived from the airport in? And the Boeing 757 that flew it over from Taiwan?

If a steady flow of brown boxes to your front door has you suddenly feeling a little self-conscious about your purchases and the carbon footprint they create, Little Green Tree may help nibble away some of that guilt. The Portland-based startup has made buying carbon credits and on a purchase-by-purchase basis easier with the addition of a new widget for retailers. When checking out at a Web-based business, customers can choose to offset the carbon emissions from their purchase with a simple click on the Little Green Tree. A reasonable 98 cents offsets a day’s worth of carbon emissions for the average person (70 pounds in the US), or shipping on an item like biodegradable trashbags from LGT’s first retail partner, GreenTrashBags.com.

Recommended Videos

That figure comes from EmissionsCalc, which does the number crunching to figure out just what kind of impact comes from shipping a roll of trash bags to your house, based on factors like weight, the total distance it has to travel, and whether it’s moving by plane or truck. Funds are funneled into charities that verifiably reduce CO2 emissions with projects, most recently the Arbor Environmental Alliance, which does everything from promoting renewable energy to managing forests and collecting leaves for composting. A controversial way to negate your environmental impact? Sure, but better, perhaps, than shrugging and leaving the diesel burned in your name completely unaccounted for.

Although it’s not the first company to offer individuals carbon offsets, Little Green Tree is one of the few to directly tie the offsets to purchases as you make them – an approachable jumping off point. Offset companies like Carbonfund.org might ask anywhere from $11.33 for offsetting a flight to $16,320 for offsetting an entire life’s worth of carbon output.

Still in the earliest stages of its rollout, Little Green Tree is only available on GreenTrashBags, but expect more as the inconspicuous widget starts popping up on retailers around the country.

Nick Mokey
As Digital Trends’ Editor in Chief, Nick Mokey oversees an editorial team covering every gadget under the sun, along with…
The insane Samsung Odyssey Ark gaming monitor is $900 off today
A person playing a video game on the Samsung Odyssey Ark 2nd Gen Gaming Monitor.

For a gaming monitor that's going to supercharge your gaming setup, you should check out the 55-inch Samsung Odyssey Ark 2nd Gen. This amazing screen is originally priced at $3,100, but you can currently get it with a $900 discount from Samsung itself. Its lowered price of $2,200 is still pretty expensive, but it's going to be worth every single penny. You're going to have to be quick with your purchase though, as with all monitor deals with high demand, the savings may disappear sooner than you expect.

Why you should buy the 55-inch Samsung Odyssey Ark 2nd Gen curved gaming monitor

Read more
SpaceX Starlink rivalry grows as next Kuiper deployment nears
A ULA rocket launching Amazon's first Project Kuiper satellites in April 2025.

Amazon is about to send another batch of Project Kuiper internet satellites to orbit as it seeks to take on SpaceX’s Starlink service to provide broadband internet to customers around the world.

The tech giant has a long way to go before it has any hope of effectively challenging Starlink, but with its second launch set for next week, progress is being made toward its goal.

Read more
Buy a Samsung G6 or G9 gaming monitor and get a free JBL gaming headset
Kena Bridge of Spirits on the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9.

If your gaming PC setup needs a screen upgrade, we highly recommend taking a look at Samsung monitor deals. There are always some huge savings available for the brand's gaming monitors, and we've picked out two of them for you to consider. The 27-inch Samsung Odyssey OLED G6 gaming monitor is on sale for $700 following a $200 discount on its original price of $900, while the 49-inch Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 gaming monitor is down to $1,000 for savings of $800 on its sticker price of $1,800.

No matter which of these two displays you choose, you'll get the JBL Quantum One gaming headset -- featuring active noise cancellation, head-tracking 3D audio, epic audio quality, and an ergonomic design with a regular price of $200 -- for absolutely free. You're going to have to hurry with your purchase though, as there's no telling how much time is remaining until the price cuts and the offer for the free gaming headset expire.

Read more