ClimateHound Launches First Carbon Neutral Certification for the Food and Beverage Industry
Whether you’re picking up a bottle of your favorite beverage or walking in the door of your favorite restaurant, you will soon see a logo featuring a friendly dog pointing toward the future of Planet Earth. Those are signs that the company has partnered with ClimateHound, a company simplifying the process to become a carbon neutral food and beverage business. The food and beverage industry accounts for about 29 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and ClimateHound founder and CEO Palmer Fox is simplifying the path for every kind of food and beverage company to make good decisions for the future of their company, their customers, and the planet.
“Every choice we make, every day, as company leaders and as consumers, can help to combat climate change,” says Fox. “Reducing the industry’s impact will take effort and expertise, and we know that running a food and beverage business is incredibly demanding. ClimateHound is a sustainability partner who understands your industry-specific risks and opportunities. We hunt carbon reductions and make sustainability an easy decision that not only has a real impact on climate change, but can also enhance a business’s brand while communicating their values to customers.”
“Why does the food and beverage industry account for nearly a third of global greenhouse gas emissions?”
Why does the food and beverage industry account for nearly a third of global greenhouse gas emissions? Creating food and beverage products requires vast amounts of water and energy, as does manufacturing cans, bottles, takeout boxes, and other packaging. Shipping burns incredible quantities of fossil fuels and produces carbon dioxide at a pace that natural factors, like forests, can’t keep up with. Food waste in landfills contributes to methane, one of the more damaging gases in our atmosphere. Even plane flights to connect with new distributors and markets, which can help to grow a business, will also grow its carbon footprint.
“We help our clients calculate their total carbon footprint, implement emissions reduction initiatives, and offset the difference year by year through carbon negative projects that directly affect the food and beverage industry,” says David Stone, ClimateHound’s head of product. Stone brings to his role a master’s in packaging science and experience as a lead UX designer for Nike and REI, focusing on enterprise apps and climate action in tech. With Fox, he has worked to create an intake and carbon footprint calculation process that addresses the specific needs of the food and beverage industry. "Specialization and detailed carbon accounting of emissions relating to scopes 1, 2, and 3 allow us to zoom in on the real and specific problems faced by our clients, and there is a lot of overlap among the operations and marketplaces for beverage producers, bars, and restaurants."
ClimateHound continues the entrepreneurial partnership of Fox and Stone, who also launched an app to streamline liquor orders and inventory management for bars and restaurants. The new startup draws on that experience as well as Fox’s personal journey. From a childhood on the Carolina coast to a bachelor’s of environmental design in architecture at NC State, Fox has always been passionate about choices that impact the natural world, and his decade working with food and beverage businesses gives him important insight on the needs of beverage producers, bars and restaurants. These passions have come together in ClimateHound. Fox believes that good choices for the planet are also good business decisions for growing a company.
“A 2021 survey by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communications found that millions of Americans are ready to reward companies that are taking action on their environmental impact, but consumers struggle with a lack of information and clarity about which companies are taking significant action,” he says. “ClimateHound carbon neutral certification means that a company has calculated its total carbon footprint across all three scopes, is taking steps to reduce overall emissions, and is offsetting the remaining impact by funding projects and technologies that lower the level of gases in our shared atmosphere. When you’re carbon neutral, you’re not adding to the planet’s warming – and you might even be helping to reverse it. This is the level of holistic transparency that we believe customers want.”
Fox says that his company’s goal is to decarbonize the food and beverage industry. ClimateHound believes that every food and beverage business can find the right combination of emissions reductions, offsets, and other actions to achieve carbon neutrality. Fox says, “Individual action by company leaders and business owners is vitally important, and we’ll see an even bigger impact when we act collectively. Food and beverages have always brought people together, and now the industry has an opportunity to create a global community of businesses and consumers who want to make a difference for the planet and for our shared future.”