đ± We need to talk about Carbon Insetting.
Featuring Nuud Gum, Nespresso, Bread and Jam, Ours to Save and more...
Happy Friday!
What weâre covering this week:
Why itâs time to use the term Carbon Insetting.
How Nuud Gum are solving a plastic problem consumers didnât know they had.
In case you missed it:Â Research and Development: A startup's secret weapon?
> Good News This Week
đŻ Rude Health achieved B Corp status, scoring 84.1.Â
đŻ Served Hard Seltzer, a seltzer brand utilising wonky fruit, announced Ellie Golding as a new co-owner and And Rising as new investors.
âïž Lego unveiled prototype bricks made from recycled plastic bottles, a step towards their goal to make all products from sustainable sources by 2030.Â
âïž Olam Food Ingredients announced a cashew transparency initiative dubbed âThe Cashew Trailâ. Goals include fighting farmer poverty by increasing average yields by 50%, helping 250,000 cashew households to improve their livelihoods and halving the greenhouse gas emission intensity of their cashew supply chain.Â
âĄïž A Yorkshire dales restoration scheme aims to work with local communities to restore 1,150 hectares ahead of COP26. Partners include WWF, Natural England and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.Â
âĄïž The Climate Change Committee (CCC) published its annual report offering its verdict on the UK's progress against its climate goals. Read a breakdown here.
> Click on each link to read more.
> Quick Take
Itâs Time We Talked About Carbon InsettingâŠ
The value of the global market for carbon offsets could increase to $200 billion by 2050. If a small portion of this capital directed at purchasing carbon credits was diverted to support carbon insetting within a companyâs own value chain, direct emission reductions and a net zero business model would be more attainable than ever before. But what do we mean by carbon insetting, and why is it the forgotten cousin of carbon offsetting?
What is carbon insetting?
Carbon insetting is the reduction of the carbon footprint within the existing value chain, in contrast to beyond the value chain in carbon offsetting projects. Unlike offsetting, carbon insetting focuses on working via projects and partnerships to reduce emissions at their source.Â
Weâve seen this practice plenty of times in the brands weâve featured and the topics weâve covered, but perhaps without this label. Switching from carbon intensive last mile delivery to an e-fleet? Carbon insetting. Partnering with suppliers to promote regenerative agriculture, and so increase carbon sequestration? Carbon insetting.Â
The overlooked cousin of carbon offsets.Â
The continuous debate surrounding carbon offsets, their efficiency, and how brands can navigate offsetting without greenwashing and inaccurate carbon accounting isnât going anywhere (see our previous article on additional offsets). The minefield of âauthenticâ climate claims, legitimacy and third party verification is all too often made trickier with offsetting projects which feel and are geographically far away from a companyâs value chain. A hyper-local approach to offsetting can cross-over to be classified as insetting - for example, if tree planting in Mexico improves the soil quality of the field you get your avocados from and improves yield. However, this is time and resource intensive, and many brands simply donât have the visibility of their supply chain to go straight to the source. Instead, brands need partnerships to achieve insetting.
Why the lack of attention around carbon insetting? To start, itâs less easily communicated. Improving cooling efficiency at a Tier 2 manufacturing plant might be harder to fit into an instagram post than a reforestation project in Nicaragua. It could also be harder to execute, with immediate offsetting becoming increasingly easy and automated for brands, and SMEs often lacking the capital to support their suppliers in reducing their emissions. However, long term financial benefits from investment into your supply chain will create a positive feedback loop for years to come. Net Zero targets will be closer within reach, supplier relationships will be strengthened, and any âgreenwashâ night-terrors will be averted.Â
Need inspiration? Check out Nespressoâs AAA Sustainable Qualityâą Program which reaches over 120,000 farmers in 15 countries.
Do your consumers care?
The metrics consumers will increasingly use to compare brands and products are total carbon emissions and net carbon reduction - irregardless of what carbon has or hasnât been offset. How much less carbon is needed to produce T-shirt A compared to T-shirt B? What % reduction in CO2e emissions has Brand C achieved in contrast to Brand D?
Whilst âCarbon Neutralâ as a term has been a powerful communication tool, Net Zero is the new benchmark for a truly sustainable business, and is one that all brands must aspire to meet eventually. Carbon insetting is one way to get there, and labelling insetting projects in the same way we label offsetting projects will aid communication around this crucial part of the race to net zero.Â
Interested? Read onâŠ
For perspective:Â
Why we canât afford to dismiss carbon offsetting in a climate crisis
Why carbon offsetting is not going to solve the problem of climate change
In case you missed it: Are your offsets additional? A quick guide.Â
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> Brand Spotlight
Nuud Gum: Solving a problem consumers didnât know they had.
Weâre chewing on 100,000 tonnes of plastic-filled gum every year, and 85% of us never knew. Spending his life savings to find an alternative, Nuud Gum founder Keir Garney has built a ÂŁ100k business in just 6 months, and just made it onto the shelves of Waitrose. How? Patience, transparency and an unshakable faith in his unique selling point - plastic free gum.
Nuud is not like the other chewing gum brands out there, and itâs not scared to let us know. Itâs own website describes the lack of transparency about plastics in well-known brands as âdeceiving, not to mention disgustingâ. Nuudâs marketing strategy is an overt expression of outrage. Copy like âchew plants not plasticâ and âtree sap đ car tyre đâ scatter Nuudâs web pages. Theyâre clearly designed to shock, and theyâre juxtaposed with the utter transparency of the brandâs own ingredients. The website dedicates a whole page to listing its ingredients and explaining each one. Using all-natural saps such as Chicle and Carnauba Wax, the end product âbiodegrades just like a banana-skinâ. No-nonsense language, no-nonsense ingredients.
Through marketing, Nuud has harnessed the eco-activism movement, and is capitalising on it. Partnering with designers Broody, everything about its visual identity is evocative of protest signs, so familiar from images of climate strikes and Extinction Rebellion demos. The pandemic may have tried to hold him back, but with two more supermarket launches in the works, there was no stopping this movement. If Greta Thunberg were a chewing gum, sheâd be Nuud. Just donât read that out loud.
Something to chew onâŠ
Thereâs a lot to learn from Nuudâs impressive launch. Not only do customers deserve transparency, as Garney notes, itâs also a âmajor purchasing driverâ in todayâs market. We agree (check out our take on transparency here). When your ingredients are as careful as Nuudâs, transparency is tantamount to boasting, and thereâs nothing wrong with that.Â
Garney has captured the cultural climate through branding, and itâs this sort of appeal thatâs particularly impressive to supermarkets and major retailers. Learn more about branding and identity here.
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> In case you missed it
Research and Development: A startup's secret weapon?
We take a look at 4.5.6 Skin, Three Spirit, Mous and more...
> Follow up withâŠ
Event: The D2C Summit by Bread & Jam: A Gathering Of Direct To Consumer Thought Leaders (30th June 2021)
Article: Tree Water and ⊠Goose Droppings? Cheers to New, Creative Uses of Waste Streams
Publication: Ours to Save