Climate Action Plan

1. Commitment to the 1.5°C Ambition

Crescent Street Design commits to supporting the global ambition to limit warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. As a small, founder-operated company, we cannot set a formal Science Based Target validated by the SBTi at this stage, and we cannot claim precise, audited measurement of our full footprint. Instead, we commit to:

  • Producing a good-faith estimate of our Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, using direct data where we have it (studio electricity, for instance) and reasonable estimation methods where we don't (supplier and freight emissions), refined over time as better data becomes available.

  • Not purchasing carbon offsets or credits to claim neutrality. CSD treats offsets as a distraction from reducing actual emissions at the source, not a substitute for it.

  • Prioritizing reductions at the point of highest impact in our supply chain — materials and freight.

Beyond emissions reduction, Crescent Street Design’s core material choice addresses one of the structural drivers of climate change directly. Deforestation and land-use change for materials like wood pulp account for roughly a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions, a driver most paper-based companies manage through sourcing safeguards: certifications, audits, deforestation-free policies. Crescent Street Design’s paper, produced by Blue Cat Paper from textile waste rather than any wood input, doesn't carry that risk to manage in the first place. Recycled and FSC-certified paper still trace back to a tree; ours doesn't. It's worth stating that this addresses the forest-sourcing driver of our footprint specifically. It does not offset or substitute for the energy, water, and freight emissions addressed elsewhere in this plan - those remain real, separate obligations.

2. SMART Targets

Foundational (Year 1: Jan-Dec 2025)

Goal: Complete a baseline Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions estimate, using the Small Business Carbon Calculator (v2.0), provided by the SME Climate Hub (carboncalculator.smeclimatehub.org), covering the NY studio, Blue Cat Paper production, and all freight legs. Scope 1 and 2 measured directly where possible; Scope 3 as a reasonable estimate refined over time, not an audited figure.

Scope 1: No direct fuel combustion at the NY studio or in CSD's own operations. Not applicable / effectively zero.

Scope 2: NY studio electricity sourced via ConEd with Sustainable Westchester Community Solar credits applied; not yet formally quantified as a standalone Scope 2 figure (tracked instead through the Community Solar account and ConEd usage comparisons).

Scope 3: Approximately 3.13–3.33 tonnes of CO2e per year, made up of:

Home office energy use: approximately 2.41 tonnes. This is the SME Carbon Calculator's estimate for the electricity and heating/cooling used while working from home. Shipping from Bangalore to New York: approximately 0.62–0.82 tonnes. We calculated this ourselves based on the ~80 kg we shipped by air last year over the ~8,000-mile route. The calculator's own number for this (under 0.01 tonnes) looked too low, so we didn't rely on it.

Holiday market travel: approximately 0.10 tonnes. All holiday markets we attend are within a 75 mile radius, and we always drive together in one car.

Goal: Request Blue Cat Paper's current energy sources (grid mix, any on-site renewables) and water use in paper production.

  • Baseline: energy is BESCOM (Bangalore grid utility) with a significant hydro/solar/wind share in the Karnataka grid mix; no on-site renewables currently, though Blue Cat has looked into it.

  • Baseline: process water is recirculated on site; no exact litres-per-kg figure available yet.

Goal: Establish a waste-diversion baseline.

  • Baseline: bulk of Blue Cat's cotton feedstock is pre-consumer waste (garment factory cutting waste) collected from textile units in/around Bangalore, most within 100km; other materials (coffee husk, flax, lemongrass, banana fibre, coconut coir, hemp) sourced within Karnataka or neighboring states.

Materials & Manufacturing (by 2028)

  • Maintain 100% tree-free, textile-waste-based paper across the core collection as the line grows.

  • Require that Blue Cat Paper's paper for CSD's line is made only from pre-industrial waste sourced within a 100km radius of Bangalore, excluding any feedstock collected from farther away. Confirmed annually via the existing supplier check-in.

  • Ask about Blue Cat's production energy sources during the existing annual check-in, no target or expectation attached.

Freight & Logistics (by 2028–2029)

Air freight is a confirmed, permanent mode choice, not a pending decision. At CSD's order volume (avg. 80 kg/year from Blue Cat Paper), sea/ocean freight's transit time doesn't work for production and delivery timelines — this applies even to smaller-volume options like LCL shipping, since the constraint is time, not container size. CSD is not pursuing a freight-mode change.

Target A: Obtain supplier-verified shipment-level freight data (mode, weight, distance, route) from Blue Cat Paper to replace both the calculator's placeholder and CSD's own manual estimate (~0.6–0.8 tCO2e) with real figures. Time-bound: by 30 December 2026.

Target B: Complete a cost-and-feasibility analysis of shifting from finished-goods import to flat, unprinted paper stock, with artwork printing done in-house at the CSD studio — reducing air freight volume (cost/emissions scale with both weight and volume) even though air shipment continues. Use this to set a realistic transition timeline or a decision not to proceed, rather than committing before the numbers are known. Time-bound: begin scoping this cycle; target transition within 2-3 years, by 30 December 2028.

Track freight emissions per unit shipped, not just total, so the metric holds steady as order volume grows.

Studio Operations & Business Travel (ongoing)

Target C: Maintain business travel to holiday markets within a 75-mile radius, traveled together in one vehicle, with no additional business trips added. Reviewed annually against the 0.10 tCO2e baseline.

Target D: Since neither co-founder commutes, replace the calculator's default homeworking energy assumption behind the 2.41 tCO2e figure with actual or better-estimated home-office energy data (utility bills, hours/days worked from home, home energy source) for both co-founders. Continue Sustainable Westchester Community Solar enrollment.

3. Resource Allocation

Human resources

  • Parveen and Zeba hold direct accountability for the plan.

  • Blue Cat Paper is responsible for sharing production and sourcing data with Crescent Street Design annually, by December 31st.

Technical resources

  • Annual re-run of the SME Carbon Calculator with results logged in a spreadsheet to track year-over-year - maintained by both cofounders. 

  • Evaluation of in-house printing equipment/capability for Target B.

Material/financial resources

  • No budget allocated to offsets, by policy.

  • Budget line for the finished-goods-to-flat-sheets feasibility study, allocated by December 30, 2026. 

  • Separately, the budget for whatever US finishing capacity is sized against CSD’s actual margins and contingent on the feasibility study’s findings, targeted for 2027 if the study confirms the transition is viable.

  • Time is the primary resource committed for Targets A, C, and D (data check-ins, logging, review).

4. Stakeholder Engagement

  • Blue Cat Paper: documented, at-minimum-annual check-in where they share energy and sourcing data against the baseline, framed as partnership rather than audit — they have the most direct knowledge of what's achievable in Bangalore. Extended this cycle to include shipment-level freight data (Target A) and a conversation about flat paper sourcing (Target B).

  • Factory-level waste suppliers: Blue Cat sources pre-industrial waste directly from producing factories — textile mills and other sources supplying cotton, tea, spent barley, lemongrass, and other byproducts. Understanding this supplier layer strengthens the traceability of the "locally sourced" claim and gives CSD a clearer picture of exactly whose waste stream it depends on.

  • Team (Parveen & Zeba): joint annual review of this plan alongside the emissions report; both log business travel together and share home energy data for Target D.

  • Wholesale and retail customers: be transparent that the plan is in its baseline year, not final-targets stage, in any sustainability messaging, to protect against the greenwashing risk we've been explicit about avoiding.

  • B Corp community: post-certification, use the B Corp network as a peer benchmark group of similarly small, supply-chain-dependent companies.

  • Consumers: share the honest framing that CSD's biggest lever is supply chain and freight decisions, not individual purchase behavior.

5. Review Cadence

This plan is reviewed and updated annually alongside the next emissions report (next due December 2026). Targets A and D are structured to directly improve the accuracy of that next report; Target B and the materials/manufacturing goals are checked for scoping progress annually.