Our mission at ALOHA has always been centered around one key principle: we create delicious, nutritious plant-based food that’s better for you and the planet. While we’ve taken some great leaps in impact along our journey, as a plant-based company we felt there was a responsibility and opportunity to lead in sustainability as well. We’ve been hard at work to build this into our operating principles - and we have some exciting news.
We’re incredibly proud to announce that ALOHA is now Climate Neutral Certified! That means we use carbon offsets to remove the same amount of carbon from the atmosphere as we produce.
ALOHA is the very first Climate Neutral Certified plant-based protein brand. As part of our commitment, we’re offsetting 5,828 metric tonnes of CO2 in 2023, neutralizing our 2022 carbon footprint.
We’ve also committed to reduction plans for 2023 and are working with the experts to ensure that we meet the Climate Neutral Certification standards this year and in the future.
What Is a Carbon Offset?
Let’s break down a few facts. Climate change is the long-term change in temperatures and weather patterns. Human activities, especially burning fossil fuels, have been the primary driver of climate change since the 1800s. When we burn fossil fuels, we release greenhouse gases (GHG) like carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. These gas emissions wrap around the planet like a blanket and trap heat from the sun, causing warmer temperatures.
The effects of climate change are staggering:
• Earth has already warmed by about 1.1 degrees Celsius since the 1800s, causing droughts, melting polar ice, rising sea levels, water scarcity, wildfires, and declines in biodiversity.
• We’ve experienced the 10 warmest years in all of recorded history since 2010.
• Heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius will cause 70 to 90% of all coral reefs to vanish.
• Heating to 3 degrees Celsius would cause 41% of all mammals to lose half of their habitat.
These are just a few examples of what a serious situation we’re in. Carbon offsets allow us to address climate change right now. Put simply, a carbon offset occurs when humans remove the same amount of CO2 from the atmosphere as we produce. Businesses can accomplish carbon offsetting by purchasing a carbon credit, which they buy from third-party carbon offsetting projects. These projects remove carbon from the atmosphere by practicing things like reforestation, regenerative agriculture, direct carbon capture, and more.
While every carbon offset project does important work, Climate Neutral only accepts those that meet the organization’s strict standards. This includes:
• Verified Carbon Standard
• Gold Standard
• Climate Action Reserve
• American Carbon Registry
What Does It Mean to Be Climate Neutral Certified?
Climate Neutral is a non-profit, third-party certification. To get and maintain certification, ALOHA and other certified businesses meet three key requirements:
• Measure and assess our carbon emissions at every stage of our process, from sourcing and production to retail stores and home delivery.
• Reduce our value chain carbon emissions, annually documenting our plans and progress along the way.
• Compensate for 100% of our emissions from the previous year via verified carbon and energy credits.
Why Did ALOHA Become Climate Neutral Certified?
As an employee-owned company, each and every person on our team believes in our mission to do good. Becoming Climate Neutral Certified represents a huge step toward our goals, and it’s something that we each hold near and dear to our hearts.
That’s why we’ve put a huge emphasis on giving back to the land and the communities that have sustained us over the years. ALOHA is a Certified B Corp and a Public Benefit Corporation, which means we prioritize environmental and social good as we build our business. We’re also very aware that our products wouldn’t be possible without the land, farmers, and communities we depend on to grow ingredients, create products, and do business.
Becoming Climate Neutral Certified was a natural next step for ALOHA. Since we made the commitment, we’ve been working to measure our total greenhouse gas emissions so we can understand where we’re starting from. From there, we’ve started working to create an actionable reduction plan, as well as purchase verified carbon credits to offset our 2022 footprint.
What Is ALOHA’s Climate Neutral Plan?
Being Climate Neutral Certified means that ALOHA is committed to carbon offsetting plus long-term reduction plans to reduce our overall environmental impact, year over year. We put this into action first by creating a reduction plan which centers around three types of emissions:
• Scope 1: Direct emissions caused by fossil fuels at our facilities and vehicles.
• Scope 2: Indirect emissions caused by electricity and steam necessary for our facilities to function.
• Scope 3: Supply chain emissions that occur when we do business, including purchasing goods and services, employee commuting, waste from operations, and more.
The ALOHA Reduction Plan
1. Home Offices (Remote Team)
We’re working to establish energy management practices that will allow us to be more energy efficient in our home offices.
2. Sustainable Agriculture Investments
Our team will continue to partner with farms that use regenerative farming practices and ingredients. Read more about how we worked with sustainable farms in Hawai’i to create the Kona Bar.
3. Product Packaging
We are actively researching opportunities and partners from which we may source alternative sustainable packaging options.
Carbon Offset Projects
We will offset 100% of our carbon emissions each year, as is required by our Climate Neutral Certification. We’ve partnered with 3Degrees, a leading offset provider, to help us choose projects that support the protections of forests and the deployment of renewable wind energy technologies. This includes Vaspet Wind Power Project and North Maine Woods Forestry Project.
Next Steps for Sustainability and Climate Neutrality at ALOHA
Over the following year, we’re offsetting 5,828 metric tonnes of CO2 according to our 2022 carbon footprint. We’ll also be hard at work putting our reduction plans in place and looking for new opportunities to lower our impact.
Supporting the people and the land that makes ALOHA plant-based protein bars possible will always be a top priority – and climate neutrality is one big step towards our goals. Keep up-to-date with our journey on our blog or feel free to read more about our sustainable efforts.
