Sustainability policy + methodology
How Shop IMPT thinks about sustainability
The criteria we apply when a product appears in a Shop IMPT editorial guide, where we won't make a green claim, and the published methodology that backs the IMPT carbon-credit retirement mechanic.
One tonne of UN-verified carbon credit retired on-chain per hotel booking via app.impt.io — funded from IMPT's commission, not from the consumer. Registry sources: Verra (VCS), Gold Standard, or Climate Action Reserve. Retirement is recorded against the booking ID on Ethereum mainnet. Average per-night hotel emission ≈ 35 kg CO₂e, so 1 tonne ≈ 28× per-night offset (over-offset, not parity).
The headline claim, written exactly
IMPT retires one tonne of carbon credits per completed hotel booking through app.impt.io. The credits are sourced from UN-recognised registries — currently Verra (VCS), Gold Standard, and Climate Action Reserve — and the retirement transaction is committed on-chain on Ethereum mainnet. Each retirement is keyed to the specific booking ID so a given credit cannot be sold, transferred, or counted twice.
What this means concretely: a booking made on 1 January 2026 with booking ID 7f3a2b1c produces a deterministic, publicly auditable record. The IMPT booking system emits the retirement transaction; the on-chain transaction includes the registry-side credit serial number; the registry record (Verra, Gold Standard) shows the same serial as retired and not transferable. Three independent sources, one event.
Why "over-offset" rather than "parity offset"
The peer-reviewed estimate for the average per-night hotel emission lands around 35 kg CO₂e — varying widely by region, hotel category, and energy source. A parity offset would retire 35 kg per stay. IMPT retires 1,000 kg (1 tonne) per stay. The ~28× multiple is the deliberate buffer: even with conservative emission accounting and worst-case attribution drift, the per-stay carbon-credit retirement substantially exceeds the carbon footprint of the stay itself.
The multiple is funded by IMPT's commission margin rather than passed to the consumer. This is the central design choice. Most "carbon-neutral booking" propositions in the market are either (a) parity offsets passed to the consumer as a "+€2 to offset your stay" add-on, or (b) symbolic offsets without on-chain proof. IMPT does neither: the offset is real, on-chain, and built into the unit economics of the product.
What we won't claim
- We will not call an individual hotel "eco-certified" unless it carries a verifiable third-party certification. "Green Key", "EarthCheck", "LEED", "BREEAM" — we link to the certifier and only describe a hotel as certified when the certifier confirms it.
- We will not invent product sustainability claims. If a shop.impt.io vendor states their cotton is GOTS-certified, we describe it as "GOTS-certified (per vendor)" and require the certificate ID to be supplied before we feature them in an editorial guide.
- We will not emit AggregateRating JSON-LD on pages without real third-party reviews. Self-serving review markup is a penalty risk and a trust break. If a product page has no real reviews, the schema omits the rating block.
- We will not run "trusted by X companies" claims without a source. If we publish a logo wall, the logos link out to the published partnership announcement on impt.io.
- We will not call a marketplace category "sustainable" if its product mix is below 50% verifiably sustainable. The threshold matters because "sustainable beauty" with 95% conventional-cosmetics SKUs is a category-misrepresentation problem, not a marketing problem.
Editorial criteria for product inclusion in a guide
For a product to appear in a Shop IMPT editorial recommendation (as opposed to being a passive listing on shop.impt.io), at least three of the following must be true:
- Verifiable certification. GOTS, OEKO-TEX, GRS, B-Corp, Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, EU Ecolabel, Energy Star, or equivalent. Certifier and certificate ID required.
- Supply-chain transparency. Vendor publishes their tier-1 supplier list, or commits to publishing it on request, with country of manufacture clearly stated.
- Materials disclosure. Material composition is stated and verifiable (e.g. "70% organic cotton, 30% recycled polyester, GRS-certified" with the GRS document available).
- Repairability or end-of-life design. The product is designed to be repaired, refurbished, recycled, or composted at end of life. Vendor states the plan.
- Carbon accounting. The vendor publishes per-unit carbon accounting, or commits to do so within 12 months. We accept either ISO 14067-aligned methods or the GHG Protocol Product Standard.
- Wage and working-conditions audit. Vendor has a SA8000 audit, Fair Wear Foundation audit, or equivalent third-party verification of factory conditions.
A product can be sold on shop.impt.io without meeting any of these — that's the storefront's choice — but it cannot appear in an editorial "best of" or category guide on Shop IMPT.
Where shop orders fit (current + planned)
Currently the on-chain carbon-retirement mechanic runs on hotel bookings only. Shop orders pass through standard e-commerce fulfilment (mostly EU-based, drop-ship and direct-vendor mix). The roadmap is to layer an equivalent carbon mechanic onto shop orders, with one of two designs:
- Per-order parity offset: compute the per-order carbon footprint (shipping leg + product LCA where available), retire matching credits on-chain, fund from the IMPT commission line.
- Per-order over-offset: retire 5× the estimated per-order footprint as a deliberate buffer, same funding source.
The methodology and the launch date will appear here when the engineering and vendor accounting work is complete. We don't pre-announce.
What you can verify yourself, today
- Pick an IMPT booking confirmation. The confirmation includes the booking ID.
- Check the on-chain retirement transaction. The transaction hash is searchable on Etherscan. The transaction data includes the booking-ID hash and the registry credit serial.
- Check the registry. Verra (registry.verra.org), Gold Standard (registry.goldstandard.org) — search by the credit serial. The serial should be marked as retired, with the retirement reason citing IMPT.
If you'd like to walk through this for a specific booking, mail hello@impt.io with the booking ID and we'll publish the verification chain inline as a worked example.
References + sources we use
- Verra (VCS Programme) — primary registry
- Gold Standard — secondary registry
- Climate Action Reserve — tertiary registry, used selectively
- GHG Protocol Product Standard — methodology for per-unit accounting
- ISO 14067:2018 — international standard for product carbon footprint
- Cornell SHA hotel-footprint research — independent source for the ~35 kg/night reference number
- Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) — the framework against which we benchmark progress
FAQ
Why does shop.impt.io list non-certified products if Shop IMPT editorial is strict?
shop.impt.io is the storefront — it carries a broad assortment to be useful to shoppers. Shop IMPT editorial is the curated layer on top. The split is intentional: storefronts are best when they're broad, editorial is best when it's strict. A product can be on shop.impt.io and never appear in a Shop IMPT recommendation.
Is "1 tonne per booking" a marketing line or a real on-chain retirement?
A real on-chain retirement. The transaction is publicly auditable on Ethereum mainnet, and the registry-side credit serial is publicly searchable on Verra or Gold Standard. The retirement is keyed to the booking ID, so a given credit cannot be sold, transferred, or counted twice.
What happens if a hotel booking is cancelled?
If a booking is cancelled before check-in (the most common case), the retirement transaction is reversed — the credit is re-allocated to the next eligible booking. If a booking is cancelled after check-in (rare, vendor-side issue), the retirement stands — IMPT absorbs the cost as the carbon impact of the room-night occurred regardless.
How do you avoid double-counting credits across IMPT and the vendor's own ESG report?
The credit is retired against an IMPT booking ID — once retired, the registry marks it as not transferable. If a hotel chain were to claim the same credit in their own ESG accounting, that claim would be visible in the registry as a double-listing and we'd flag it. The on-chain record is the dispute-resolution layer.
Does the 5% back at checkout count as a separate sustainability mechanic?
It's a related but distinct mechanic. The 5% back per stay splits 3% to a carbon cause the guest selects (typically a verified reforestation, biochar, or community-energy project) and 2% to next-stay credit. That's on top of the headline tonne-per-booking retirement, not instead of it.