While Software-as-a-Service is one of the largest industries across the Southeast, companies like Cloverly are looking to bring a different definition of SaaS to consumers and businesses alike.
Cloverly’s “Sustainability-as-a-Service” platform and suite of tools are designed to help companies and retailers of all sizes take tangible steps towards going carbon neutral.
One of the main ways Cloverly looks to track and reduce a client’s carbon footprint is through their API, which helps calculate per-transaction carbon offsets. Free for any company to integrate, the API determines the environmental cost of business decisions such as shipping a package.
At its core, carbon offsetting is a trade. Companies buy an offset by funding a project that counteracts emissions produced by a product or service, therefore helping make the transaction carbon neutral. This is particularly important in ecommerce, where companies are looking for ways to decrease the carbon footprint associated with air and ground shipping. But is also common in the ridesharing, aviation, and energy industries.
For Cloverly’s Emily Bailey, the startup recognizes that carbon offsetting can be one important step in helping companies and startups of any size achieve their own sustainability goals.
“We want [Cloverly] to be very streamlined, very much in-cart, to create the least amount of friction. Because for ecommerce brands, it’s important for us to provide really flexible offerings,” Bailey told Hypepotamus.
Photo from Fjord and Fable, an ecommerce company partnering with Cloverly
The API is free for any company to integrate, and many ecommerce stores include Cloverly in their checkout cart area so customers can add a few cents to their order to offset the carbon associated with shipping.
But it is not just ecommerce companies that are able to offset their carbon footprint. Through their tailored portfolio of suppliers, Cloverly allows any company to buy carbon offsets that benefit a specific geographic location or a certain environmental vertical their team is passionate about.
For example, companies in the Southeast may choose to offset with a solar farm in central Georgia or a project in Florida which captures methane gas from landfills before such gasses are released into the atmosphere.
So far, Cloverly has helped offset well over 28 million pounds of carbon since its founding in April 2019.
Cloverly, which grew out of Southern Company’s sustainability efforts, is led by Atlanta-based Anthony Oni. Oni saw an opportunity to expand on Southern Company’s corporate initiatives and bring access to renewable energy products to more businesses looking to reach new sustainability goals. Southern Company is Cloverly’s primary investor to date.
As Cloverly carves out its space in the B2B carbon offsetting landscape, the company is aware that it is both consumer demand and corporate responsibility which is driving large companies and startups alike to add carbon offsetting to their business model.
“There’s a really incredible brand benefit to making tangible and visible sustainability efforts to your ecommerce store or to other brand touchpoints,” Bailey added.
