The short answer: We no longer buy carbon offsets. Instead, we build emissions reduction into the product itself by replacing petroleum-derived materials with certified organic alternatives. The emissions our supply chain would have generated never enter the system. That distinction is the foundation of our entire climate strategy.
Why We No Longer Use Carbon Offsets
Carbon offsets allow a company to emit greenhouse gases and then pay to theoretically offset those emissions elsewhere — by planting trees, funding renewable energy projects, and similar mechanisms. It's compensation after the fact.
We don't think that's good enough. And more importantly, it's not what our products make possible. When we replace polyurethane foam — a petroleum-derived material — with GOLS-certified organic latex tapped from rubber trees, we're not compensating for a fossil-fuel input. We're removing it from our supply chain entirely.
The emissions that the input would have generated never enter the system.
That's not an offset. That's elimination. And it's a fundamentally different claim.
Where 92% of Our Emissions Come From
Most companies focus on decarbonizing their offices, facilities, and vehicle fleets. Those are real reductions — but for a mattress company, they're not where the carbon lives.
Ninety-two percent of our greenhouse gas emissions come from our value chain — the materials and upstream production behind our products. That ratio is why material substitution drives our climate impact more than any operational change ever could.
2024 Verified Emissions (tCO₂e)
Scope 1 (direct emissions): 0
Scope 2 (purchased electricity): 1,372
Scope 3 (value chain): 16,024
Total: 17,396 tCO₂e — a 48% reduction since 2021
This is why the most consequential climate decision we make each year isn't which energy provider we contract with. It's what our products are made of.
What "Climate Funding" Actually Means
In 2024, we spent $1,010,079 more than we would have if we sourced conventional materials instead of certified organic ones — $678,473 on organic cotton and $331,606 on GOTS-certified wool.
We call this our climate funding. It's the incremental cost we pay to keep synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fossil-fuel-derived inputs out of our supply chain entirely. The emissions those inputs would have generated never enter the system.
This is not offset purchasing. It's the actual cost premium of doing the right thing at the material level — and it grows as we expand certified organic and regenerative inputs across more of our product portfolio.
The Materials Behind the Reduction
Certified Organic Latex
Replacing polyurethane foam with GOLS-certified organic Dunlop latex — derived from rubber tree sap — eliminates our reliance on petroleum-derived materials at the core of every mattress. Our sourcing partners in Guatemala and India close the loop further: rubber tree plantations intercropped with food crops, biomass fueling the processing steam, and net-positive sequestration from forest to port.
Certified Organic Wool
Our wool sourcing partnership with Agrestal Organic Living spans 325,500+ sheep across 38,000+ hectares of Himalayan grassland in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Improved rotational grazing across these managed pastures is estimated to sequester approximately 32,000 tCO₂e annually — approaching nearly twice Avocado's total verified annual emissions, from one sourcing region alone.
Certified Organic Cotton
Sourced from certified farms across Turkey, India, Canada, and North Carolina — deliberately diversified to reduce single-region dependence while maintaining GOTS standards across every origin. No synthetic pesticides. No herbicides. The soil stays healthier. The supply chain stays cleaner.
"Avocado is unusual because of its advanced practices around sourcing low-carbon inputs and embedding them in its products. This is what we call deep decarbonization. The results show up in the 48% absolute GHG reduction the company has achieved, even during business expansion."
— Austin Whitman, CEO, Change Climate Project
How We Measure and Verify This
We have held Climate Label Certification for five consecutive years. Our 2024 emissions data has been independently verified; verification of 2025 is in progress. Measurement follows the GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard across all relevant categories.
Emissions intensity — total verified emissions per dollar of revenue — fell from 0.18 kgCO₂e in 2021 to 0.11 in 2023, and held at 0.11 in 2024 even as the business grew. That stability matters: it shows the reduction is structural, not due to lower sales volume.
What We're Working on Next
50% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030, measured against our 2021 baseline — registered and tracked through Climate Label Certification.
At least 50% renewable electricity at our Fullerton manufacturing facility — under evaluation for near-term implementation.
10%+ annual growth in climate funding as we expand certified organic and regenerative inputs across the product portfolio.
An updated ISO-aligned Life Cycle Assessment, commissioned and published by 2026. Our current LCA (Trayak, 2019) predates meaningful supply chain evolution. Until the update is complete, the 310 kg CO₂e per mattress figure — roughly 47% lower than 2.5 conventional hybrids over the same 25-year period — remains our best available benchmark.
Climate and emissions data reflect the most recently verified year (FY2024), with FY2025 verification in progress. The 48% absolute reduction since 2021 reflects cumulative operational and measurement improvements; emission factors for key organic inputs were refined between the 2022 and 2023 reporting periods, and year-over-year comparisons prior to 2023 are not directly comparable. Sequestration estimates for our Himalayan wool sourcing landscape are conservative, literature-based figures subject to future baseline soil carbon sampling; they sit outside our verified Scope 1–3 emissions boundary and are reported separately. Full methodology and verified data available in our annual Impact Report.