A greener Route to ecommerce

Route has made it their mission to reimagine and improve the ecommerce experience. And with their AI-driven software and $1.25 billion valuation, the company is doing just that: Offering smart, proactive product tracking and package protection, the Utah-based unicorn is helping small brands compete in an increasingly global marketplace.

“Both big and small merchants alike need the right shipping tools to compete with the likes of today’s ecommerce giants,” explains Evan Walker, Route’s Founder and CEO. “That’s where Route comes in.”

Since its founding in 2019, the company has partnered with more than 32,000  merchants——and tracked over 270 million packages for shoppers. The visual tracking, meanwhile, is free.

The results speak volumes, with up to 75% fewer support tickets for merchants, 400% higher customer engagement compared to competitors, and more than 2.5 million monthly active users. But an existential problem remained: the exorbitant amount of carbon emissions required to get a package from merchant-point-A to customer-point-B.

That’s when Route turned to Patch.

Meaningful impact

Looking for a way to provide their users and merchants with carbon-neutral shipping, Route knew they needed carbon credit projects that would be relevant to their business, third-party certified, and free from greenwashing. They initially investigated the potential of planting a tree for every shipment, but learned that un-certified tree planting efforts can actually make the problem worse.

“Sustainability has always been important to me and something I wanted to bake into the business,” says Walker. “Patch helped us select the right project and made it easy for us to offer customers the ability to offset their shipping emissions with a single click.”

To get started, Patch helped Route evaluate multiple certified forestry projects around the world, all available within the Patch marketplace. Patch connects companies of all sizes with trusted carbon credits from an expertly vetted, broad scope of projects, either through instant purchases on their dashboard or an API integration that automates the process.

Ultimately, Route selected the Fazenda Nascente Do Luar Agroforestry Project in Brazil, a forestry project certified by the Verified Carbon Standard, which aims to plant 845 acres of degraded grassland with new trees. In addition to carbon capture, the project offers numerous co-benefits, including increased soil fertility, habitat building for endangered wildlife, and jobs creation amongst the local community.

Carbon neutrality in a click

With the right project in tow, Route was ready to take the next step with Green Package Protection, which covers the cost to neutralize shipping emissions and protects the shopper’s order from loss, theft, or damage. To do so, it calculates the emissions generated by each shipment and neutralizes them with credits generated by the Fazenda Nascente Do Luar project—at no additional cost to their customers.

With online purchases accelerating faster than ever—and consumers increasingly aware of the related climate impact—the solution comes at the perfect time.

“The Patch team has been instrumental in helping provide our customers with a credible option to neutralize the emissions generated from their shipments. Once we found the right project, they made integrating it into our app quick and seamless,” says Walker.

Sustainability on the horizon

Green Package Protection is only a portion of Route’s commitment to creating a more sustainable future for ecommerce. The company is committed to neutralizing 100,000 tonnes of carbon emissions and incorporating sustainability into its own office operations—the equivalent of planting 160,000 trees, or roughly 33,000 acres of forest.

“As e-commerce grows, so will carbon emissions,” explains Brennan Spellacy, CEO at Patch. “But by leading the industry with certified projects like the Nascente Do Luar Agroforestry Project, Route is changing the narrative and showing the world that carbon neutral shipping can be both easy and good for business.”