Net Zero Carbon Food


WHAT IS NET ZERO CARBON FOOD?

The food you are eating right now has been gone through a long process until reaching your plate. From the crop, the farm or even the sea all ingredients have been transported to the food manufacturing site, where they have been processed to become the final product suitable for eating. Once packed, they have been delivered to the store for customers like you to buy them.

This process comprises many different activities like growing, harvesting, cleaning, transporting and producing that harm the environment. For example, the use of fertilizer releases nitrous oxide (a very powerful climate change gas) into the atmosphere and manufacturing factories require energy that may come from non-renewable sources which emit CO2e and cause air pollution.

As you may know, CO2e includes all climate heating gases like methane and nitrous oxide and expresses this as equivalent to CO2. The sum of all these gas emissions produced by growing, rearing, farming, processing, transporting, storing, cooking and disposing of the waste is the carbon footprint of the food. The total amount of carbon equivalent released to the atmosphere is called the embedded CO2e. While transport is one factor, on average it is only 5% of this total embedded CO2e. Most of this CO2e comes from the farm in the form of nitrous oxide, land management systems that reduce soil carbon and deforestation

However, not all emissions are the same. They are categorized into three groups named “scopes” depending on the origin and control companies have over them:

  • Scope 1 – All Direct Emissions, related to fuel combustion and under control of the company

  • Scope 2 – Indirect Emissions, linked to electricity purchased and also under the control of the company

  • Scope 3 – All Other Indirect Emissions, associated with the food, the packaging, the transportation and distribution and many other factors. Most of these are not under the control of the company and easily have the greatest share of the carbon footprint of a food product.

The last category, Scope 3, is by far the most difficult one to calculate. However, all of them must be taken into account if we want to know the real total amount of embedded carbon on our plate.

There is no practical way yet to get food to a factory gate without releasing climate heating gas. To get to net zero a company starts by using renewable energy and then offsets the CO2e in the food they produce. One of the best methods to do this is by planting trees as they capture CO2 and use it to build their trunks, branches, roots, and leaves. By doing this planting, companies can “absorb” from the air the same amount of carbon that has been released to manufacture their products.

We can consider as net zero carbon all foods whose total carbon emissions have been calculated to sequester them back from the atmosphere and then plants trees or some other system that sequesters carbon from the air. Therefore the impact of their manufacturing process on the climate has been “neutralized”.

 

WHY SHOULD WE CONSUME NET ZERO CARBON FOOD?

Switching the lights off when you leave the room and unplugging your electronic devices when they are not in use are some easy examples of actions you do in your daily life to consume less energy. Also using public transport or commuting by bike are simple ways to reduce your carbon footprint.

Eating net zero carbon food is just another habit you can incorporate into your routine to take care of the environment. We turn on and off several lights every day and we also eat several times per day. If you think about it, we all eat at least three times per day and every day of the year during our entire life so you cannot imagine how many tons of food each human consumes in total and how big is our personal carbon footprint.

For example, eating just a serving of avocado once a day contributes approximately 72kg to greenhouse gas emissions per year. That is the same as driving 297km with a car, heating a home for 11 days or taking 252 showers lasting eight minutes.

You probably were not expecting such a high amount and we can imagine how surprised you may be right now. As you can see, consuming net zero carbon food has a much higher positive impact on the environment than you think and can really make a difference in the fight against climate warming.

In this piece of news by BBC you can check the impact of some of the food you eat every day: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46459714

 

WHERE CAN I BUY NET ZERO CARBON FOOD?

Up until now, there were no carbon neutral foods available in the market but this has changed. In early 2021, Alara became the first manufacturer on Earth to produce net zero carbon cereals after the launch of our first four cereals – Apple & Cinnamon Bircher, Crispy Fruit Muesli, Fruits & Seeds Muesli and Original Muesli – including their embedded CO2e on pack. Later that year we added a new recipe to this line – Scottish Oats Gluten Free Porridge – and this year we can confirm that our full catalogue is now net zero carbon. This also includes our Organic Milled Linseeds range!

From now on it does not matter anymore what your favourite recipe is, the carbon of your breakfast bowl will always be offset.  Below you can have a look at the embedded CO2e of all our products:

Product name Total embedded CO2e (T) CO2e Trade price Contributions to Rainforest Saver
Total Amount (T) Total Amount (£) Total Amount (£)
Active Life Muesli 0.26 3.52 550
Ancient Grains 0.24 3.23
Bircher Muesli 0.39 5.25
Delight Muesli 0.13 1.72
Everyday Muesli 0.34 4.62
Fruit & Nut  Muesli 0.29 3.92
Fruits & Seeds Muesli 8.10 109.36
Fruity Oats Muesli 0.58 7.83
Goji Cranberry Muesli 0.34 4.64
Golden Crisp Granola 0.28 3.81
Luxurious  Porridge 0.69 9.29
Old Fashioned Oats 0.04 0.55
Pure Oats 1.07 14.50
Rich Muesli 1.88 25.36
Scottish Oats Porridge 1.42 19.10
Crispy Fruit Muesli 7.03 94.96
Original Muesli 0.22 2.95
Bircher Apple and Cinnamon 0.21 2.84
Milled Acai Bowl 0.00 0.02
Milled Linseeds Raw 1.27 17.14
Milled Linseeds Superfoods 0.06 0.82
Milled Mixed Seeds 0.06 0.82
Super Foods Muesli 0.26 3.45
Super Fruits Muesli 0.05 0.73
Super Seeds Muesli 0.03 0.43
TOTAL MARCH 25.25 340.88
Month Total embedded CO2e (T) CO2e Trade price Contributions to Rainforest Saver
Total Amount (T) Total Amount (£) Total Amount (£)
Total January 19.88 268.43 550
Total February 19.45 262.61 550
Total March 25.25 340.88 550
TOTAL 2022 64.58 871.92 1650


You can easily check these numbers at the back of each pack:

         

As you can see these numbers can significantly change between the products. Scottish Oats or Pure Oats are the recipes with fewer carbon emissions while others like Crispy Fruit Muesli are at the top of the list but the reason behind this is easy to understand. Both of them have a similar amount of ingredients but for example, organic coconut chips in the latest are imported from far away. The journey of this ingredient to our premises is very long and therefore the amount of carbon needed to arrive here is also much higher in comparison with other ingredients. This is the main reason the difference between the total embedded carbon for the same amount of muesli is so different. Every single ingredient has an impact on the environment as every small gesture we make to fight against climate change does.

 

HOW DO WE MAKE SURE THESE PRODUCTS ARE NET ZERO CARBON?

We made a list of the raw ingredients we use in these five products. Then a team of tutors and students at Westminster University helped us to research the total embedded CO2e of each of them until they leave our premises.

As we were already aware of the Scope 1 and 2, they evaluated the Scope 3. This way we were finally able to calculate the total amount of embedded carbon both direct and indirect.

We took these numbers and talked to Rainforest Saver, an organization dedicated to promoting environmentally-friendly farming techniques amongst Sub-Saharan Africa and Central and South America farmers. Cutting and burning plants, also known as slash-and-burn agriculture, is a widely used method to clear the land to cultivate food, but it causes huge damage to the environment. Rainforest Saver promotes an alternative farming technique consisting of planting a tree called Inga, which has been proved to maintain soil fertility and good harvests without destroying the forest as it sequesters nitrogen.

We donate money to Rainforest Saver to promote the Inga alley cropping in those areas so they can help farmers to learn how to plant these trees. By doing this we do not only prevent the forest from being destroyed but we also offset our carbon emissions, as each Inga tree will capture an average of 1,250 of CO2 during its life.

By comparing our embedded CO2e with the average quantity absorbed by each tree, we can offset all carbon emissions we have generated along the manufacturing process. This way we take back from the atmosphere, all gases we have released before to produce the cereals you have in front of you.

 

HOW DO WE CALCULATE AND WHAT DO WE PAY FOR OUR OFFSETS WITH RAINFOREST SAVER?

Alara started contributing to Rainforest Saver in 2015 to help support their capacity building and so far we have sent them £35,000.

We are now changing our payment system to them and from now on we will remit a minimum of £550 per month. We also increase it if the cost of the embedded CO2 in our net zero carbon products exceeds the cost of carbon on the UK carbon market.

The carbon market opened in the UK after Brexit on the 19th of May with a price of approximately £50 for Carbon. As the atomic weight of a carbon atom is 12 and the atomic weight of oxygen is 16 the total atomic weight of CO2 is 44 (12 + (16 * 2) = 44) so 1kg of CO2 can be expressed as 0.27kg of carbon.

The traded price is therefore £13.50 for a ton of CO2. We get our carbon price from for our offset from here: https://www.energylivenews.com/2021/05/20/britains-emissions-trading-system-starts-with-a-boom/

 

HOW DO OUR CEREALS COMPARE TO OTHER BREAKFASTS?

You may believe there is not much of a difference but there is! For example, the embedded carbon of fried eggs and bacon breakfast is the same as leaving a bulb on for 17 hours. Similarly having avocado on toast equals 6.5 hours. However making porridge with Alara cereals emits as much carbon as switching off the lights of your house, zero.

 

HOW MUCH CO2e ARE WE OFFSETTING?

Below you can find our monthly report gathering the total embedded carbon of the sales of our five products together with its total cost in the market and the contributions made to Rainforest Saver. We will keep it updated so get back at the end of every month to check how we are doing.

Embedded CO2e (T) CO2e Trade price Contributions to Rainforest Saver
Month/ Product Bircher Apple and Cinnamon Original Crispy Fruit Fruits & Seeds Scottish Oats TOTAL (T) Total Amount (£) Total Amount (£)
January 0.05 0.07 6.29 13.07 19.48 263.04 550.00
February 0.15 0.19 4.04 5.52 9.91 133.74 550.00
March 0.59 0.77 5.79 8.44 15.58 210.34 550.00
April 0.15 0.82 3.77 7.14 11.88 160.44 550.00
May 0.17 0.18 8.26 13.51 22.13 298.74 550.00
June 0.12 0.25 5.74 7.64 13.75 185.58 550.00
July 0.26 0.50 5.25 8.23 14.24 192.21 550.00
August 0.10 0.46 8.70 9.22 18.48 249.48 550.00
September 0.13 0.04 6.59 9.66 16.42 221.69 550.00
October 0.23 0.29 4.74 6.92 1.88 14.05 189.71 550.00
November 0.16 0.22 3.72 7.47 1.27 12.84 173.38 550.00
December 0.14 0.14 2.95 5.28 0.89 9.41 127.04 550.00
TOTAL 2021 2.25 3.93 65.83 102.12 4.04 178.18 2405.38 6600.00

*Organic Scottish Oats Gluten Free Porridge has been added to the range in late September 2021 so embedded CO2e calculations will be included from October 2021 onwards.

**Calculations for the products added in 2022 will be shown from February 2022.

This is just the first step in our journey. We are planning to extend this new feature to all our range so keep an eye on our website for updates.

 

WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRY OUR NET ZERO CARBON CEREALS?

    *Promotion only applies to UK customers. Samples are limited to one request per address.