Carbon and climate labels communicate data around carbon emissions, greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related metrics, which you see on just about every product you buy in the grocery store.
Food produces about eight tons of emissions per household, around 17%.
A climate label is more holistic and includes more metrics than a carbon label, which tends to only focus on carbon emissions. Meat, eggs and cheese have the highest carbon footprint, and fruit, vegetables, beans and nuts have lower carbon footprints.
Tenzing, a British energy drink maker, was the first soft drink brand to introduce carbon labeling to its products in 2021. In 2020, Just Salad was regarded as the first restaurant to use carbon labeling for its menu.
Sam Dennigan, founder and CEO of Strong Roots, which makes healthy plant-based frozen meals, says that carbon footprint labeling is a new level of transparency and responsibility from brands to understand their environmental impact better.
But as Dennigan points out, carbon and climate footprint labels are different.
“For many brands, the addition of climate footprint labels is key to their evolving brand positioning, especially as consumers increasingly look at the climate impact of their food purchases and make decisions accordingly,” said Dennigan in an email interview. “Carbon footprint labels are a differentiator for consumers, signaling that a brand has taken steps to address the carbon impact of their products and are making it publicly known.”
But Dennigan says that carbon labeling introduces a new level of transparency and responsibility from brands to understand their environmental impact better.
“If a brand doesn’t know about their environmental impact, they don’t have the insights to improve it, and consumers don’t have the resources to make the most informed purchasing decisions for the planet,” said Dennigan.
“Carbon labeling is like addressing personal fitness goals– you may need to measure weight or caloric intake to reach a desired objective, so you examine where you currently are and where you want to be,” said Dennigan. “We know the global goals for the planet, and to fix our food systems, we need to reduce two gigatons of carbon by 2050.”
Strong Roots partnered with CarbonCloud, a climate intelligence software company in Sweden that enables the company to track, calculate and communicate its carbon footprint across our supply chains. They can measure their climate goals daily through the CarbonCloud system. From that information, Dennigan says they can calculate their emission baseline and create a roadmap to identify areas where they can improve throughout their production process.
CarbonCloud calculates Strong Roots’ emissions per kilogram of the food product, using research and global statistics to calculate emissions as accurately as possible.
Strong Roots has raised €95 million to date, and in 2021, McCain Foods invested $55 million in Strong Roots, giving them a minority stake in the company.
Labeling evolves
Historically, food labeling in the UK goes back to 1938, but it wasn’t until 1996 that regulation was modernized to what we see today. In the US, mandatory food labeling started in 1913, but it wasn’t 1994 when the US Nutrition Facts label first appeared, which was revised in 2016.
“With more than 25 years since food packaging first displayed nutritional information, enabling consumers to make more informed decisions for their health, and now we can’t imagine our food without them, said Dennigan.
“Carbon labeling is becoming more widely adopted, and that’s what the industry and the planet need right now,” said Dennigan. “It’s not so much trend as it is a growing trend among brands committed to transparency of their environmental impact, and it’s necessary especially now as we are experiencing rising sea levels, forest fires, and mass population displacement.”
Dennigan says the objective is to show consumers that every purchase has a carbon impact and encourage them to make more informed food decisions.
“We hope to share knowledge and start conversations that shift consumers towards more environmentally conscious food options, and carbon labeling is key in educating shoppers to take that extra step,” said Dennigan. “As this awareness around carbon impact grows, we want consumers to start demanding this transparency from every company, especially the big ones who make the impact.”
Dennigan says that if a brand feels pressure from consumers to publicly illustrate its carbon footprint on its packaging, it’ll work much harder to improve it.
Strong Roots is making the biggest change in its packaging by placing carbon details on the front of the food item. “Placing carbon details front-of-pack is a small change for us, but it has a big impact in placing sustainability front of mind,” said Dennigan.
Dennigan believes that carbon footprint labeling on food packaging has the potential to shift behavior among those who aren’t looking for the information—and even among those who are actively trying to avoid it.
“Carbon footprint labels are just that one step further, so let’s make it as simple and quick as possible to help consumers to understand the impact of their food choices on the planet,” said Dennigan. “This type of market penetration takes time, and right now, thirty-one percent of consumers say that the single most important label on food packaging is calories.
“Watch this space; in the next decade, climate footprint labels will be more important than calories for consumers,” said Dennigan.
Food shoppers: the new climate crusaders
A climavorism food report from Kearny found that 42% of food shoppers always or nearly always consider environmental impacts when making purchasing decisions.
The 2022 research paper, Do carbon footprint labels promote climatarian diets, the Journal of Environmental and Economics and Management showed that carbon footprint labels decreased the probability of selecting a high-carbon meal by approximately 2.7%-points. The field experiement was conducted at five university cafeterias located within a University of Cambridge College.
Dennigan says that in recent years the company has seen a market-defining group of consumers looking to make food purchases that align with their values. “These values are consistently trending towards environmentalism and sustainability,” said Dennigan.
“Our research shows that while health is a dominating factor as to why people purchase plant-based products, 45% of people do so because of environmental concerns,” said Dennigan.
“We’re seeing food shoppers champion climate consciousness within their overall diets, affecting what they buy in the store,” said Dennigan. “People are identifying within different subcategories of diets that go beyond just cutting out meat intake, but are reflective of climate responsibility put into making certain products.”
Dennigan adds that these are diets such as flexitarian, climatarian and sustainatarian – each with a nuanced outlook into how they will make food choices that align with their climate-conscious values.
In a 2022 McKinsey report, 88 percent of American Gen Zers said they don’t trust brands’ environment, social and governance (ESG) claims,” adds Dennigan.
“There is a younger generation of folks, particularly those in Generation Z, who feel incredibly strong about environmental sustainability,” said Dennigan. “Consumers in this generation have so much more access to educational research, data and technology than people did 50 years ago and are so much more exposed to consequences of the climate crisis.”
Dennigan says there are 68 million people in the Gen Z generation in the US. “As this generation grows and becomes an integral part of our workforce with more purchasing power, we will see significant change because of their dedication to sustainability and concern for the environment,” adds Dennigan.
Alternative meat bubble
Dennigan says the alternative meat bubble has burst.
“Our survey results show that consumers are sick of overly processed, additive-filled foods, even plant-based, and we’re seeing a major shift towards consumers preferring whole plant, nutrient-dense food options with a short ingredient list,” said Dennigan.
In February 2023, Business Insider reported that Beyond Meat’s sales slumped, with Q4 revenues down 20.6% and a posted loss of $366 million in 2022.
“In 2019, alternative meat products were set to take over and solve the climate crisis by becoming the gateway to veganism. Everyone hopped on board, including investors,” said Dennigan. “Consumers were curious, and sales of fake meat soared almost 20% that year. Now the fake meat industry has slumped. In the US, sales of alternative meat fell 7.3% year-over-year to $1.1 billion, while units dropped 15.6%.”
Dennigan says the harsh reality is that consumers don’t like it.
“This is a new era, ‘plant-based 3.0’, and we must focus on creating options that bridge the gap in taste, health, and sustainability that faux meat products can’t satisfy,” adds Dennigan.
Dennigan believes that technology will play a crucial role in sustainable food production in the future by advancing sustainable agriculture practices like regenerative farming, improved soil health initiatives and reducing the carbon footprint of our food.
“Our suppliers are at the cutting edge of agricultural technology, and they innovate by employing a large team of agronomists to investigate new technological developments to maximize growing efficiency and minimize waste,” said Dennigan. “They also encourage an amalgamation of old and new techniques: for example, crop rotation meets GPS monitoring to ensure that the best of ancient wisdom can inform cutting-edge scientific developments.”
Dennigan believes that the top food brands that will emerge in the next decade will prioritize soil health, embrace tech-enabled farming, and create a win-win scenario for sustainability and profitability. “And they’ll have the climate footprint labels to prove it,” said Dennigan.
Dennigan admits that even though Strong Roots is currently a Carbon Neutral Organization, because of how global food systems operate, there is no such thing as carbon-neutral food.
“Even under the most ideal circumstances, a certain amount of greenhouse gasses is created in food production,” said Dennigan. “We’re committed to eliminating fossil fuels from our operations as far as possible, and to do this, we examine every step of our food’s journey from farm to freezer.”
“In the face of climate change, achieving carbon neutrality in our food systems is not an option; it’s a necessity,” said Dennigan. “By embracing sustainable practices, we can ensure that the food we consume positively impacts the environment. We know that food can be better, and we’re on a mission to fix it.”