We celebrated Earth Day over the weekend on Sunday, April 22nd. When Earth Day first emerged in 1970, everyone drove around in their gas-guzzling V-8 sedans without a care about how their lifestyles were affecting the environment.
But on April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans from East Coast to West Coast took to the streets to demand a healthy and sustainable environment.
At the time, there were already groups that had been working hard to fight against things that were damaging the Earth.
Things like oil spills, pollutive factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, and the extinction of wildlife.
And the groups all came together on April 22nd to protest against the deterioration of the environment.
It’s been a long battle that we’re continuing to fight to this day. But people are starting to witness the effects that our actions are having on the earth. And they’re fighting harder than ever to reverse those effects.
Companies have even started to join the fight. This is great news because it’ll bring more attention to how big of a problem pollution is.
And the more popularity and awareness the problem gets, the more people will likely get on board.
So, what better company is there to get more people on board than ride-hailing company Lyft?
The company has made a commitment to help in offsetting carbon emissions. It recently announced that with every ton of carbon pollution released by its drivers, it will pay 3Degrees.
3Degrees is a carbon-offsetting program that funds eco-friendly projects in the U.S. These projects include planting trees, cleaning up emissions in the automotive manufacturing process, and funding renewable energy creation.
This initiative from Lyft will have a huge effect on carbon emissions, especially since the company completes more than 10 million trips weekly.
This isn’t the first time that Lyft has come out in support of the environment. In 2017, the company took a pledge to team up with environmentalist Paul Hawken. With Hawken, the company began setting environmental targets that it wants to hit effectively and quickly.
Lyft Cofounders John Zimmer and Logan Green were inspired by Hawken. And they believe that businesses can work with the environment to improve it, rather than continue damaging it.
A business like Lyft, which puts so many cars on the road, only needed to brainstorm to find a way to have a positive impact on the environment. And this public initiative will get more companies to see that it’s possible to both be profitable and improve the planet.
Green and Zimmer recently wrote on Medium about Hawken, saying: “His book demonstrates how industry and the environment do not have to be at odds, and if we work to find the right solutions, the two can (and must) work together.”
While Zimmer was an undergraduate student, he took a class called Green Cities, which was a huge inspiration to him. It also helped to form Lyft into a company that holds environmental sustainability as a top priority. This is in addition to providing a greener, more reliable transportation option for commuters.
Now, the company has announced that it promises to help in offsetting carbon emissions — not only for the U.S. but worldwide, too. Zimmer and Green also wrote in their Medium post: “Your decision to ride with Lyft will support the fight against climate change.”
The impact of Lyft’s promise will amount to offsetting over 1 million metric tons of carbon. Zimmer and Green say this amount will be “equivalent to planting tens of millions of trees or taking hundreds of thousands of cars off the road.”
We’ll only continue to see Lyft working toward being a company that’s aware of its influence and uses that influence to benefit its image, the environment, and the world.
And this news from Lyft would also be great publicity if the company does, in fact, decide to file for its initial price offering (IPO) sometime this year.
Until next time,
Jennifer Clark
Pro Trader Today