🌱 Old Dog, New Tricks: How Heyday are giving canned goods a glow up, and 6 resources to help your team become 'futures literate'.
Featuring Dalstons, Misfits Market, Bruichladdich Distillery and more...
Happy Monday!
This week we cover:
Quick Take: Is your team ‘futures literate’? 6 resources to kickstart your journey.
Brand Spotlight: Getting Canned: How Heyday is driving hype in an overlooked aisle
In case you missed it: 🚀 Launching: The ‘MEASURE’ Database. Need Help Navigating The Corporate Carbon Accounting Landscape? Start here.
> HOLD UP! Before we dive in….
🚀 UPDATED: Our ‘MEASURE’ Database
What is MEASURE? 100+ carbon accounting partners, categorised and mapped against 350+ consumer goods brands they’ve worked with. Why? To make it easier and quicker for your brand to find the perfect partner.
We first launched MEASURE in 2021. Now, we’ve refreshed the list to ensure that all businesses listed are operational and actively serving consumer goods brands.
10 new partners added:
CarbonQuota - Focused on the print and packaging sectors - Belvoir Farm, Finnebrogue Artisan, Daler Rowney
Carbon Action - An expert provider of Carbon Management and Training in Ireland and the UK.
CarbonTrail - A fashion-specific platform focused on Scope 3 accounting and product environmental footprints - ARVIND, Asmara
Climate Positive Consulting - Consultancy partner to help measure, reduce, certify as B Corp and more - CLIF Bar, Thrive Market, Vital Farms, Nutiva
Climax - A Netherlands based tool / consultancy combo aiming to make carbon accounting simple
CoGo - Providing carbon footprint management for both individuals and businesses
Dodo - Connects to your accounting software to measure emissions in minutes
Ecofye - Real-time monitoring of GHGs, including Scope 3 - Minor Figures, Wild, OFFBLAK
One Carbon World - Consultancy to help you measure and reduce, who are also strategy partners for the UN Climate Neutral Now initiative - Cinnabar Green, New Look, Farrington Oils
Toitū Envirocare - A NZ based full stack service providing everything from LCAs to training programmes and pledges - Alliance Wine, ABE’s Bagels, Emma Lewisham, Antipodes Water Company
👉 Reminder: We’ve interviewed a select few organisations in our ‘Meet the Partners’ series. If you’d like your organisation to be next on our list, reach out!
> Good News Last Week
🎯 Bruichladdich Distillery Company Ltd. have partnered with James Cropper to incorporate a coloured paper pulp outer wrap for their Luxury Redefine whisky range. The paper pulp is produced using 100% green energy, sourced from sustainably managed forests and is fully recyclable.
🎯 Algae Cooking Club launched their first product - a cooking oil made from fermented algae. The oil was developed alongside chef Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park and has a higher smoke point than olive oil and avocado oil, making it ideal for frying. Its carbon footprint is also half that of olive oil.
🎯 Dalston’s Soda Co. announced they are B Corp certified, alongside the launch of their planet hub where they share all their efforts in becoming more sustainable.
🎯 Sway launched their latest collection: TPSea™ Resin and TPSea Flex™ Film. The thermoplastics are made from seaweed and not only replace plastic but also add nutrients back into soil when they decompose.
🎯 Blueland showed their support for the Pods are Plastic Bill which aims to ban the use of Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) used in detergent pods. PVA pollutes the environment with approximately 75% of plastic particles from the pods leaching into ecosystems. Find out more information on their website and how you can support the Bill.
⭐️ Misfits Market announced that their Packaging Return Program, which was launched in December 2020, has collected over 10 million pounds of packaging to date. The program, in partnership with Imperfect Foods and Dispatch Goods, collects items like gel packs and insulated liners used for their deliveries to reuse or recycle the materials.
⭐️ Ganni announced the launch of their latest innovation, Celium, which is a bacteria-grown leather produced by Polybion. From the material they’ve produced a crop top, miniskirt and bag. The bacteria are grown with fruit waste, further reducing the material’s carbon footprint to less than 10% of the footprint of leather.
⭐️ Patagonia announced that since September 2022 they have spent $71 million on global conservation efforts. Two of the projects they support are efforts to protect the Bristol Bay in Alaska and the Vjosa River in Albania.
⭐️ Ahold Delhaize launched their open-source climate hub where their suppliers and farmers can learn about carbon emissions, reduction opportunities and how to report their emissions on the platform. The hub is part of Ahold Delhaize’s decarbonisation plan of their Scope 3 emissions.
> Want good news sooner? We post every Friday on LinkedIn! If your CPG brand has good news to share, let us know.
> Quick Take
Is your team ‘futures literate’? 6 resources to kickstart your journey.
The future can be scary, whilst also exciting and energising. All companies need to think about the future systematically, but sustainability companies especially, to stay adaptable and impactful in our fast-changing world.
What is Futures Literacy? Why is it important?
Despite its mystical sound, being a futurist involves “preparation, not predictions”. It uses data and deep research to understand various possible futures. Futures Literacy is considered a capability by UNESCO. That means UNESCO believes the population is just as capable of achieving this skill as reading or writing.
Futures Literacy is defined as ‘the skill that allows people to better understand the role of the future in what they see and do’. It ‘empowers the imagination, enhances our ability to prepare, recover and invent as changes occur’.
UNESCO sees Futures Literacy as necessary because ‘without images of the future that inspire hope and foster collaboration there is a high risk of despair and war’. It’s easy to allow negative press to bring us down and prevent us from dreaming, but Futures Literacy allows for the democratisation of the future.
If you’re a company on a mission to be more sustainable (like most of our readers are), you’re likely already doing a better job in the futures department than most. Some argue that becoming a B Corp, and having the associated priorities in mind, is a way to ‘future-proof’ your business.
The most forward-thinking companies are creating positions, or hiring consultants, to think about the future. But if, like most, you don’t have that internal capacity, here are some great ways for you or your team to get started increasing your Futures Literacy.
3 Ways to Adopt a Future Mindset:
Read up on practical frameworks. How to Future: Leading and Sense-Making in an Age of Hyperchange by Scott Smith and Madeline Ashby is a primer full of tools and best practices useful to any major brand or start-up.
Listen to future-forward podcasts like The New Abnormal to become more familiar with futures thinking and ‘train’ your mind to think in new patterns.
Future-forward events, like Blue Earth Futures, are popping up everywhere. Attend events like these and network with the futurists in the room.
3 Resources to Help Educate Your Team:
Engage in team training, such as IFTF’s Foresight Essentials training, which can be customised to any context and needs. Teams will learn about Strategic Foresight and come out feeling equipped to collect data and grow their cognitive flexibility.
Facilitate a session! Finland’s innovation fund, Sitra, offers free access to Futures Frequency training, equipping you with exactly how to take the lead and train your colleagues. The workshop can be customised to your scenario.
Stretch your team’s imagination with a game. The Thing From The Future is an award-winning imagination game from Situation Lab that “challenges players to collaboratively and competitively describe objects from a range of alternative futures.” The card game is sold out, but you can download a free printable version here.
Now, don’t be fooled… by engaging with these resources you won’t be able to predict the future. But, your organisation should be on a better path to resiliency and the future professionals like us are striving for - a sustainable one.
> Brand Spotlight
Getting Canned: How Heyday is driving hype in an overlooked aisle
As I write sitting in my kitchen, I have my three favourite Heyday Canning Co offerings (Coconut Curry Chickpeas, Kimchi Sesame Navy Beans, and Tomato Alla Vodka Cannellini Beans) waiting in my pantry. I had spotted the new brand (founded by two Consumer Packaged Goods veterans) in the aisles of Whole Foods and specialty shops for a few months, but didn’t dip my toe into the metaphorical soup pot until I caught wind of their Bean Pop-Up Shop in New York City.
Much Ado About Beans
In a magical storefront in downtown Manhattan visitors lined up for hours at the promise of canned beans as currency. With Heyday beans and other bean-themed paraphernalia on trade, all exchanged cans (with a corresponding Heyday match) were donated to food rescuing organisation City Harvest. For customers, this was clearly a win-win-win which went viral with almost 5,000 cans donated. For Heyday, the objective was clear: cut through the noise, and increase their brand awareness to match their distribution scale at supermarkets across the U.S.
I won’t belabour the planetary and personal health benefits of beans; we already broke that down here. The popularity of canned beans is also not a new global phenomenon; in 2023, the canned bean market was valued at $5.65B and is projected to increase 10% from 2023 - 33.
What Heyday brings to the table is eye-catching design, a clear brand personality (in comparison to 100+ year old competitors like Bush’s Beans and Heinz) and real-life touch points that align their brand with customer values.
Old Dogs, New Tricks
The canned goods aisle has been getting lots of love lately with upstarts and CPG darlings like Heyday and Fishwife forging ahead. It makes economic sense, too; consumers are hoping to leave sky-high grocery bills behind in 2024, and comparatively affordable canned goods, even the newer, more expensive varieties, feel like an excellent place to start. We also understand how to operate when it comes to disposing of a can; according to CEO Kat Kavner, it’s the most curbside-recycled food packaging. Overall, Heyday isn’t trying to create a new category for themselves; they’re looking at an existing, stable industry with growth potential and aiming to make their offering more flavourful, colourful, and intriguing than their shelf-side competitors.
Beans aside, how can you apply this ethos to your business?
At an event outside of their native West Coast, Heyday was able to hold the notoriously short-lived attention of New Yorkers by creating buzz around a refreshed staple while benefiting the community.
Here’s what you can explore for your own business:
Community impact doesn’t only mean embracing your company’s local area.
Building on something familiar (a canned good, a food drive) with an unexpected twist can be a savvy play as younger generations feel unusually nostalgic (see NYC hotspot Tatiana’s elevated cosmic brownie or the weirdoldfoods Instagram account) and old school sequels top the Hollywood charts.
Focus on meeting your customers where they’re at - whether that’s in the aisle with a tasting, on the streets of their city or pulling back the curtain on TikTok.
We’d love to hear how your brand is bucking tradition, and reaching your customers in innovative ways. Reply to this email or share with us on LinkedIn!
Take a closer look at HeyDay Canning Co:
> In case you missed it
🚀 Launching: The ‘MEASURE’ Database
Need Help Navigating The Corporate Carbon Accounting Landscape? Start here.
> Follow up with…
Article: The Lifecycle of a Can
Article: Why Going Retro is London’s Biggest 2024 Dining Trend
Report: The Challenger Brands Index
Book: Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility
👉 Pssst - want to be featured in our ‘Meet the Partners’ series? Reach out here!