đ The Check-Out: Lydia Oxley Johnson, Renewal Mill
+ 5 cool climate events + what's in our basket - TrueStart, garum & ginger shampoo...
Happy Thursday! Welcome to The Check-Out - your weekly dose of climate x consumer goods inspiration, and your discovery box of products and events the Following the Footprints team are loving this week. Itâs great to have you here.Â
One thing we LOVE about publishing newsletters is that we just never know what conversations theyâll start. Early June saw Jenny write about âhigh-trashionâ brands for Upcycled Food Month. One of these brands was Renewal Mill. One LinkedIn DM from Lydia, President at Renewal Mill, later⌠today Jenny and Lydia are chatting all things supply chains, DTC vs B2B, and 3 wishes for consumer goods. Pretty wild, right?
After we chat to Lydia, weâll share what the Following the Footprints team has loved and consumed this week and 5 Climate x Consumer Goods events coming up. Letâs dig inâŚ
> Brand Spotlight
đď¸ Behind the Brand: 6 questions with Lydia Oxley Johnson, President of Renewal Mill
ââđ Hello! Weâd love the non-LinkedIn lowdown on you and Renewal Mill.
Well, hi! My background is a pretty even combo of marketing and operations. My first full-time role was in brand marketing at Red Bull throughout the midwest. There, I grew a deep appreciation for agriculture and the behind-the-scenes of our food system.Â
Seeking a deeper mission, I came across Imperfect Foods when âuglyâ produce delivery was just beginning. Over the next 4 years, I grew with the company and took on cross functional and operational projects, from growth marketing and customer care to merchandising and localization. That work gave me such a strong understanding of what it takes to grow a startup, but more importantly, it offered the opportunity to shape a consumer-centric movement.
While supporting private label product launches, I fell in love with an upcycled cookie product using Renewal Mill ingredients. I followed the brand closely and then joined to scale the business. Renewal Mill sources and develops delicious and nutrient dense ingredients from manufacturing processes in our food system, founded by Claire Schlemme and Caroline Cotto in Oakland, CA. We sell B2B ingredients and CPG products nationally in Whole Foods and other leading retailers.Â
Our key ingredients are made from the protein and fiber processed out of oats and soy when making plant based milks, called Oat Milk Flour and Okara Flour! They are both super high in protein and fiber and naturally gluten free. Renewal Mill is well loved as an upcycled brand and food-system-focused company, named a âWorld Changing Ideaâ by FastCompany.
ââđ What was the most complicated part of establishing your supply chain, given that youâre making âupcycledâ products requiring the pulp and fiber from other manufacturing processes?
Making upcycled products is the challenge! Weâre at the mercy of other industriesâ performance; our creation limits are tied to how much of our source material (ie - the pulp left behind from oat milk production) is produced - a rare position. If the oat milk industry declined in production, we would be in a bad place as well, because we would struggle to produce our high-protein oat flour. Thatâs why our focus is on choosing the right supply chains with higher ceilings, so that we can grow without limitations.Â
Weâre currently focused on innovation within our supply chains. Recently, for example, we processed our first tanker truckload of GFCO (Gluten-Free Certificate Organization) oats. This was a big triumph for us because the oat supply chain is quite diverse, with oats coming from many smaller farms, which leads to frequent cross-contamination. Weâre energized by new challenges like this one!Â
ââđ Since you offer B2C via Amazon & Whole Foods and are otherwise B2B, how have you had to adjust your messaging and education for those two different groups?
We see upcycling as exciting - food is the only area of life where we get to vote three times a day, and at Renewal Mill weâve done our jobs right if a potential customer is intrigued enough by one of our products to grab it off the shelf and purchase it for the very first time.Â
In our DTC business (via Whole Foods and Amazon), weâve maintained our âbake a better futureâ messaging. We want our mixes to be reminiscent of a grandmother figure: someone who makes the most of what they have to produce a delicious end result. Our solution to consumer pain points is front and center on our mix packaging: gluten-free, easy to prepare, chef-developed and high in protein (thanks to our upcycled origins). Renewal Millâs DTC messaging initially focused on how our products fought climate change, but the environmental-forward approach unfortunately wasnât making our other functional benefits apparent enough. We havenât stopped highlighting our reduced environmental impact, but itâs now on the back of our packaging for when someone is already considering a purchase.Â
On the B2B side, itâs actually a lot more simple; we lead with nutrition, scalability, and impact metrics and are meeting the needs of R&D reps, manufacturers, and brands themselves. R&D wants to see innovation, something new and functional that solves a specific problem. We fulfill their desire for high-protein (our oat flour is almost 50% protein), gluten-free, and plant-based ingredients. The unconventionality of our ingredients is what gets R&D excited to experiment. Manufacturers want materials to run smoothly on their lines and easily deliver, via pallet or truckload. Brands are now needing to find ways to meet scope 3 emission goals, and the reductions we offer via upcycling are quite compelling, especially for big brands under pressure to update outdated supply chains.Â
ââđ How do you think about and measure your impact at Renewal Mill? What does sustainability mean to you?Â
We look at our impact in three ways - poundage of food saved, water savings, and emissions avoided by creating our products from the waste streams of other industries. Claire is laser-focused on providing accurate emission reduction statistics to our clients and weâve seen poundage of food saved really resonate, since itâs such a tangible metric.
What I love about this work is that our impact grows as we do; by being a circular company, product purchases mean we can save more and more resources.Â
ââđ Ok, magic wand time: if we could grant you three wishes for the consumer goods industry, what would they be?
My first wish would be compostable, affordable packaging with a long shelf life. Thereâs so much opportunity for packaging innovation; better, low-cost CPG packaging would be a game changer.Â
My second is for greater awareness around the innovation required to establish a supply chain from scratch. Trendspotters are hungry for new flavors and collabs, but the beautiful thing about a food system is creating a new ingredient or enhancing an existing oneâs performance. Large-scale risks, like building a supply chain, require a lot of industry partnership, trust, and belief in the end result. Investing time and effort to solve the scariest system-wide problems is worth it, though, because consumers really do care.Â
Lastly, Iâd love to see a woman-owned distribution system! Having transparency in distribution would fix a lot of the issues we see within CPG. Restaurant and foodservice distribution is a lot more transparent than retail, where the accounting can get quite thorny and brands donât receive much support.Â
ââđ Finally - weâd love some recommendations: one climate-related resource, one person to follow online and one consumer brand thatâs killing it!Â
A resource: Danielle Schwabâs Iluminate Food Substack
To follow online: Following the Footprints (of course), but also Leah Thomas (aka Green Girl Leah). She often discusses climate intersectionality, and how conversations about climate are also ultimately about race and equity.
A brand I love and respect: Matriark! Theyâre similarly a small, scrappy team and have found a great upcycled use case.They create premium products with their available resources.Â
A huge thanks to Lydia for jumping into the hot seat today!
> In Our Basket
đ What we loved and consumed this week:
From Rosalin in Manchester: I'm not entirely sure why, but the smell of coffee always reminds me of camping. I've been camping a few weekends this summer and I always pack my TrueStart Instant Coffee, which is B Corp certified and tastes great even in a field (even when you forget to pack milk in your cool box) â
From Jenny in New York: To say that I was hyped when the Noma Projects team did a âNew York City Tourâ this past spring would be putting it lightly. I waited in a rainy line to try a specially-concocted Aebleskiver and to buy their mushroom garum (free of the high shipping cost). Months later, itâs a key ingredient in many a tofu marinade & dressing!Â
From Laura in Manchester: A bit of a cult classic...this week I'm replenishing my stock of The Body Shop ginger shampoo. Not only does it smell amazing, but I love what they have done with the Plastics for Change programme.
> Monthly Events Roundup!
đ 5 Consumer Goods x Climate Events:
Browse 20+ upcoming consumer x climate events, and submit yours.
15th August - Small99 CRAB - fast, fun Sustainability workshop!
Organisers: Aspire Sustainability Consulting
Location: WRAP, Brighton, UK
20th August - Find your âUnique Positive Contributionâ and unlock your impact strategy
Organisers: Given, Anthesis
Location: Virtual
10th September - Deloitteâs Digital Consumer Trends - Introducing the âEra of Enoughâ
Organisers: Deloitte
Location: Deloitte, Cambridge, UK
11th September - Tech for Sustainability: Uncover The Truth On Sustainability Claims
Organisers: Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership
Location: CISL, Cambridge, UK
25th September - Sustainable Bites: Seven Plausible Scenarios for the Food Industry
Organisers: Kerry
Location: New York, USA
Thatâs it for today!Â
Know a brand we should spotlight next? Let Leone know!Â
Have links that can make the team learn or laugh? Share them with us, we might just share them in The Check-Out next week.Â
Hungry for more? Youâll see us on Monday! Thatâs when we suit up and get serious, digging into a topic that is guaranteed to make you look smart at standup.Â
Much love,Â
Team FTF