These sustainable brands make every day Earth Day

This Earth Day, we’re highlighting Crisp customers that give sustainability a whole new meaning, with products designed to make a climate-positive impact from day one.

At Crisp, we’re fortunate to work with incredible breakout brands that represent a new wave of sustainability in CPG. While just a few years ago, sustainability might have focused on mitigating adverse environmental impacts, today’s emerging brands put sustainability at their core, with products that make a net positive impact on issues like climate, plastics, and waste. In honor of Earth Day, we wanted to highlight four brands working to create a more sustainable food system – and using data to maximize their impact.

Moonshot Snacks takes a bite out of climate change

Moonshot is a pioneer in the “climate friendly” food movement. The brand’s tasty crackers are made with stone-milled artisan wheat from a farm two miles away from their factory along with other organic, non-GMO ingredients. It’s a mission-driven company by design, working to create a net positive impact on humans and the planet through sustainable snacking. As Marketing Director Hayley Brown says, “It’s easy to talk the talk, but for us, climate-friendly eating is more than an idea: it’s our reason for being.” 

“It’s easy to talk the talk, but for us, climate-friendly eating is more than an idea: it’s our reason for being.”

Hayley Brown, Moonshot Snacks

To start, Moonshot works with regenerative farmers – farmers who use practices that capture carbon and store it in the soil. By storing carbon in the growing process, the wheat in Moonshot crackers is actually carbon negative. From there, Moonshot looks at every area of their business, including tracking and reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with operations and materials, and purchasing more offsets than estimated emissions to ensure a net-positive climate impact.

Here at Crisp, we couldn’t help but admire how Moonshot uses data to achieve their goals. In fact, they’ve also founded a sister company called Planet FWD, which helps brands measure, reduce, and offset emissions. Planet FWD’s software analyzes when, how, and where a product’s ingredients are grown throughout a product’s life, taking into account recycling and landfill. 

Take Two takes on spent grains

Take Two is doing its part to address food waste with the first plant-based milk made from upcycled products: spent grain. By diverting barley that would normally go to landfills, Take Two saves eight pounds of CO2 for every three pounds used. But on top of its role in upcycling the grains, Take Two’s signature barley milk is also rich in protein and calcium.

Take Two created their own methodology to manage environmental impact, starting with assessing every step in their business – from ingredients to water to energy use. From those assessments, they set goals for improvement and make small, meaningful, changes at a rapid pace. This has earned them a number of certifications, including: Upcycled Certification, Non-GMO Project Verified, 1% for the Planet, How2Recycle, Plant Based (in progress), and B Corp (in progress).

Head of Sustainability Breyn Hibbs explains it further: “One of our values is: ‘Seek the facts, care greatly, act quickly.’ Data from the assessments, as well as the data we access through Crisp, all plays a critical role in our ability to do exactly this. We are committed to knowing where we are, to seeing where we could do better, then setting goals that not only answer the needs of the business, but create positive social and environmental impact.” With the help of Crisp, Take Two evaluates how their values and vision are received at the customer level across retailers.

The Urgent Company makes tasty treats animal-free

The Urgent Company uses innovative technology to change the way food is made. Their portfolio of brands includes Cool Haus, which features incredible dairy-free ice cream flavors, animal-free dairy ice cream brand Brave Robot, cream cheese by Modern Kitchen, and California Performance Co, an animal-free whey protein.

The Urgent Company’s strategy is to create products that don’t compromise on consumer experience, but are also friendlier for the earth, whether the consumer knows it or not. As Amanda Odmark, Senior Communications Manager, says, “We’re excited for the years ahead where sustainable, innovative products made through technology are so commonplace that they’re widely accessible to all – that’s where the real, measurable climate impact will happen.” To quantify their impact, the company recently completed an ISO-certified life cycle assessment of Brave Robot’s ice cream, which showed the brand reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 72%, non-renewable energy by 60%, and blue water consumption by 23% compared to conventional dairy ice creams.

As a technology-centered organization, The Urgent Company is no stranger to data. Amanda explains: “Data plays a huge role in our sustainability strategy. We’re grateful to have a partner platform like Crisp that is also led by sustainability with the mission of solving global food waste through data. Harnessing insights to better understand purchase drivers, track velocity, and measure sales not only helps us meet our own goals, it also helps to reduce food waste along the way – a win for us and for the planet.”

“Harnessing insights to better understand purchase drivers, track velocity, and measure sales not only helps us meet our own goals, it also helps to reduce food waste along the way –- a win for us and for the planet.”

Amanda Odmark, The Urgent Company

Repurpose imagines a world without plastic

Repurpose is tackling the world’s plastic problem, one product at a time. The brand makes non-toxic, compostable, household products like utensils, kitchen bags, and paper towels using upcycled and renewable materials. Repurpose’s approach to sustainability is to make responsible choices easy and convenient. As Sales Director Gwen Richardson says, “We believe sustainability should be accessible, and this philosophy has always guided our growth path.” The brand also serves to educate customers on the benefits of cutting plastic use (did you know humans ingest a credit card’s worth of microplastics every week?)

With the sustainability piece in place, Repurpose uses data to expand their reach as much as possible. Gwen says, “Data helps us see where we can make the most change. When we see what the market demands, and we can make it greener, we see that as our best way to impact the planet in a positive way.”

To learn more about how data can power your team’s mission, contact us for a demo. For more inspiring stories from Crisp brands, subscribe to the blog.