Rebel Kitchen case study: Environmental sustainability
22 February 2020
It has never been business as usual for Rebel Kitchen. At the heart of this plant-based brand is their Purpose Manifesto, a pledge to show that a business can be, and should be, a force for good.
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Download (210 kb)In an effort to be transparent, and to encourage others to act conciously, the rebellious company made a commitment to be carbon neutral by 2025. They reached their target in just six months.
Last year, Rebel Kitchen underwent the immense task of measuring their carbon footprint. In order to do this, the team joined forces with Provenance, a platform that empowers brands to take steps towards transparency, and Carbon Analytics, a company that helps businesses measure their carbon output.
When analysing a business-wide carbon footprint, not one item of business expenditure is left out of the equation. With the help of Carbon Analytics, the team at Rebel Kitchen were able to allocate a carbon value to absolutely everything. This included the obvious, like transporting goods, to the forgotten factors, such as coffee cups used at trade shows.
As the business grew so did their carbon usage, but Rebel Kitchen’s carbon intensity did not increase. The company’s carbon footprint in 2018/19 was 4,041.82 with a reduction in carbon intensity of 14%. To put that into human terms, that’s the equivalent of a Boeing 747 flying non-stop for 5.32 days straight or driving the average car 24/7 for 17.93 years.
The London-based company also wanted to keep connected to carbon offsetting projects. They partnered with PUR Project and Ecosphere, two verified Carbon Standard projects based in Peru. Both organisations work tirelessly to protect high-value Amazon rainforest under threat, regenerate degraded ecosystems and support community-driven programmes.
Rebel Kitchen will not rest long in the glow of this achievement; they feel there are always improvements to be made. They will start to explore the carbon data further and see what can be done to reduce their carbon intensity even more.
However, carbon is only one of a long list of areas they are looking into. Rebel Kitchen is approaching their impact from many angles, from packaging to sourcing optimisation, as they continue their journey to becoming a business that is in true harmony with the planet.
“This really began with our Purpose Manifesto, a forward-looking document outlining where we see ourselves in 2025. The general theme is radical honesty, including transparency of our measurement. We fely honesty should be an essential underpinning of our business practice on our journey to be the best business we can for our planet. Within the Manifesto we had a clear ambition to become carbon neutral by 2025. We are six years ahead of schedule, having just certified as a Carbon Neutral Business through Carbon Analytics.”
Head of Purpose and Sustainability, Rebel Kitchen