It’s been a rough few weeks for climate advocates with the U.S. starting the process to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement.

The silver lining is that the administration’s decision has invigorated the business community to speak out more than ever before in support of responsible climate policy and climate action.

Climate is becoming the defining issue of our era and rightly so. Our consumers want action. Now more than ever we must work together. It’s up to us to accelerate our commitment and actions, support innovation and stand together to find solutions to the climate challenge.

What can you do?

1. If you haven’t already, sign on to this statement by businesses, investors, state and local officials, and higher education leaders to demonstrate the breadth of U.S. leaders of all sorts who remain committed to helping to reverse climate change..
2. If your company hasn’t already made a public commitment to climate action, now is the time! Take the first step here.
3. If your company has already made a commitment to climate action, please invite your peers in the natural products community to join you!

It’s been just a few months since the launch of the Climate Collaborative yet we are already two-thirds of the way towards meeting our goal of one hundred companies committing to climate action in year one! An enthusiastic welcome to the eighteen companies that have made climate commitments since our last newsletter. We applaud their commitment to climate action:

Kudos to all of the companies that have pledged to address their climate impact. Click here for a complete list of the companies that have made commitments to date.

Thus far, the greatest number of companies have made commitments to integrate carbon farming into their agricultural supply chains.  Here are some shining examples of their efforts in progress:

Straus Family Creamery is actively implementing a 20-year carbon farm plan at one of its nine dairies and is also actively encouraging the ranches in their supply chain to consider developing and implementing carbon farm plans. They are also working with a methane digester company and a local non-profit organization to implement a methane digester pilot project which will dramatically increase the capture and destruction of SLCP's. Numi Tea joined the Cool Farm Alliance and is moving towards using the Cool Farm Tool with targeted farms to measure and monitor the impact of carbon reduction projects. Tankabar is engaged in buffalo restoration utilizing wild management as a regenerative agriculture strategy and conducting research on buffalo ranching as carbon farming.

Is your company interested in integrating carbon farming into its supply chain? Find more resources about carbon farming here.

Share Your Story

Have you had any climate impact successes you think we should know about? Send them our way and we’ll make sure that your lessons learned benefit the whole community. 

Send us any blog or social media posts your company publishes about your experience reducing your impact on the climate and we’ll spread the word!

Two years ago, concerned that the company’s commitment to organic was not enough to ensure the kind of future it hopes to see for its customers, its staff and the planet, Happy Family decided to take action. The company created a full-time sustainability position with a focus on climate change. Despite having just one full-time staff person devoted to sustainability, Happy Family has been able to make enormous progress by building its climate goals directly into the workplans of its teams. At Climate Day at Expo West this spring, Happy Family announced its climate action commitments in six areas – transportation, deforestation, food waste, agriculture, packaging and policy – and teams are already working hard to reach their goals. Learn More

The Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) recently released a series of free educational guides designed to help farmers and ranchers enhance the soil health and overall resilience of their operations. These soil management practices help farmers sequester carbon in the soil and increase resilience to drought and floods. Download the guides here.

If you missed the webinar on Leveraging Supply Chains for Regenerating Farmland and Forests, you can access it here.

Check out Drawdown, the recently published book edited by Paul Hawken. This bestseller maps, measures, models, and describes the 100 most substantive solutions to global warming. Order your copy today or contact us for info on bulk discounts so you can share Drawdown with your employees and suppliers. And if you missed Paul Hawken’s keynote address on Drawdown at Climate Day in March you can watch it here.

Next Climate Collaborative Webinar: The Fast and the Furious: A Food Company's Guide to Reducing Transportation Emissions

Wednesday, June 28th, 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM PDT

REGISTER NOW

Whether you have your own fleet or ship LTL, the distribution of your products is one of the largest opportunities for companies to reduce climate impact. Join the Climate Collaborative and speakers from the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and several brands to learn more about best practices around reducing climate impacts from transportation. Topics will include technology developments and best practices for fleet management, decisions you can influence if you don’t own your own fleet, transportation metrics, and policy opportunities (state, federal).

Register for the June 28^th webinar here.

Greening the Global Shopping Cart

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is launching a new webinar series called Greening the Global Shopping Cart with webinars on Halting Deforestation, Greening Your Freight Moves, and more. Learn more here.

Look for the Climate Collaborative at the following events:

• 2017 INFRA Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN, July 15-17, 2017
• National Co+Op Grocers Convergence, Minneapolis, MN, July 17-19, 2017
• Natural Products Expo East, Baltimore, MD, September 13-16, 2017

If you haven't already made a commitment to Climate Action please visit the Climate Collaborative web site and check out the nine areas in which your company can make a commitment to bold climate action.

Big thanks to Patagonia for a generous grant to support the Climate Collaborative’s work in agriculture.  It's thanks to the generosity of companies like Patagonia and all of our donors that participation in the Climate Collaborative is 100% free!