Why Thrive Market Invests in Carbon Offsets

As we work to ship healthy groceries across the country, Thrive Market inevitably creates emissions. Despite our best efforts toward sustainability, packing and shipping have an impact on the environment — and that’s something we need to hold ourselves accountable for. 

We recently reached Climate Neutral Certification thanks to a combination of lessening our emissions and offsetting the ones we create. Here’s more about exactly what that means. 

Why Carbon Offsets? 

While the best way to lessen our impact on the environment is by reducing our carbon footprint entirely, some emissions are unavoidable. We’ve chosen to neutralize those emissions by investing in carbon offset credits that support a number of rigorously vetted projects. These projects do things like capture methane gas from landfills, generate wind energy, and remove emissions from industrial processes. 

How We Verify Carbon Offset Projects 

It’s a tricky subject, but not all carbon offsets are quite as trustworthy as they claim to be. This is why we work with trusted partners to ensure that the carbon credits we purchase go toward supporting only vetted projects that meet the Climate Neutral Certified standards. 

Here are the three points companies must meet in order to achieve the Climate Neutral Certification Standard (CNCS):

1. Third-party Verification‍

Carbon credits must be verified according to one of the following standards: Gold Standard, Verified Carbon Standard, Climate Action Reserve, or American Carbon Registry.‍

2. Vintage Year Restriction

With the exception of forestry and land-use, all carbon credits must represent avoided emissions or removals from within the four years up to and including the emissions year. For companies getting certified in 2023 for a 2022 emissions footprint, this includes any vintage year from 2019 through 2022. For forestry and land-use projects, all credits must represent emission reductions from within the seven years up to and including the emissions year, which includes any vintage year from 2016 through 2022. There are no requirements for project start dates as long as the credits meet the vintage year requirement. 

3. Portfolio Requirements

During certification, carbon credit purchases are tracked based on the project categories and types are listed on Change Climate’s website. All carbon credit purchases must be from the approved project types. Certifying brands are required to report on the Project Category for all credits purchased. 

Our 2024 Initiatives

As a Climate Neutral Certified company, Thrive Market measures our company’s annual Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions and invests in carbon credits to remove and reduce climate impacts outside of our operations and supply chain. To compensate for our 2023 carbon emissions, we are supporting these initiatives: 

Sichuan Furong Coal Mine Methane Utilization Project

Located in Yibin city in Sichuan Province, China, this project captures and uses coal mine methane for power generation within the mine by displacing electricity used from the on-site captive power plant and the Central China Power Grid for on-site use. 

Corderilla Azul Peru REDD+ Project

This project prevents deforestation in a large expanse of forests in four areas in central Peru (San Martín, Ucayali, Huánuco, and Loreto) by engaging local communities in land-use management and conservation of 1,351,964 hectares inside a national park. This also helps to improve the quality of life of the park’s approximately 180,000 neighbors, who mostly practice subsistence agriculture.

Ascend Performance Materials Phlogiston Phase I Adipic Acid N2O Abatement Project

In Cantonment, FL, this project helped to remove nitrogen oxides from the atmosphere at an adipic acid plant (an acid primarily used to manufacture nylon). The first phase of the project worked to instate a high-pressure water absorption process that would help to destroy nitrogen oxides created by the plant. 

Manantiales Behr Wind Farm

This wind farm, located in the Province of Chubut, Argentina, uses wind turbines to harness energy to help generate electricity for the local power grid. 

Xinyang Msw Landfill Site LFG Recovery to Power 

This project aims to recover and destroy landfill gas generated at the municipal solid waste landfill site in Xinyang City, China. The recovered gas is used to produce electricity that is then fed into the Central China Power Grid.

Read more details about these projects here.