Etsy has a unique challenge in that 98 percent of its total shipping emissions result from items shipped directly from sellers to buyers. In most cases, it's up to the seller to handle shipping and that won't change, but now Etsy will buy verified emissions reductions for every item purchased, through a third party, 3Degrees. These credits don't directly counter emissions but support green projects, including wind and solar farms in India and forest conservation in Minnesota.

The change comes at no additional cost to buyers or sellers, and it's a minimal cost to Etsy. "Considering these offsets will cost less than one penny per package for Etsy, we don't believe that cost should be a prohibitive factor for others to follow in our footsteps," the company wrote in a blog post.

Amazon may not be anywhere close to offsetting its shipping emissions, but the retail giant announced earlier this month that it wants half of its shipments to be carbon-neutral by 2030. Given the size of Amazon, in comparison to Etsy, it will, understandably, take more time to right the ship.