Impossible Foods, maker of the now famously
indistinguishable Impossible™ Burger, today published its 2019 Impact
Report. The annual report tells
the story of the company’s progress in creating market-based environmental
impact, achieving sustainability milestones through innovation in operations,
and advancing the urgent agenda of dietary transformations. Impossible’s
ultimate mission is to replace the need for animals as a global food-production
technology by 2035. This report is an urgent call to action for readers —
highlighting the cultural and research-driven awakening that is finally linking
climate, biodiversity and food.
Impossible Foods is a major player in the growing global movement to embrace
plant-based proteins — alongside companies such as Beyond
Meat
in the US, Max
Burgers in
Europe and Hong Kong’s Right
Treat;
NGO efforts such as WRI’s Cool Food
Pledge
and WWF’s Future 50
Foods
report; and even new plant-based offerings from big-food players such as
Nestlé.
SB’s own #BrandsForGood
collaboratory
has identified eating more plants as one of nine key consumer behavior shifts
that can drive the greatest impact toward a sustainable future — aka the “Good
Life.”
Image credit: Impossible Foods
Impossible quickly amassed popularity and venture
capital in
the past few years by making meat directly from plants — with a much smaller
environmental footprint than animal meat — as part of its mission to create
wholesome and nutritious food, restore natural ecosystems and feed a growing
population sustainably. The company kicked off 2019 with a product
upgrade that, for all intents and
purposes, delivered on its promise of replacing ground beef, and on a massive
scale — the Impossible™ 2.0 recipe improved the sustainability and
nutritional credentials of the product, while sparking soaring, taste-driven
demand; and the Impossible Burger can now be found at more than 9,000 Burger
King, Live Nation, Qdoba, Red Robin, Umami Burger and White
Castle locations across the country — as well as Hong Kong, Singapore and
Macau.
Preserving rice for generations to come through regenerative water-use practices
Hear how Mars and its Ben's Original brand are working with Delta Harvest to greatly reduce water use in rice cultivation while improving crop yields, at the SB Regenerative Ag Summit — Thursday, Oct. 17, at SB'24 San Diego.
Impossible Foods was also recognized by the UN with its highest environmental
honor: Along with fellow plant-based meat innovator, Beyond Meat, Impossible
received the 2018 Champions of the Earth
Award
for its high-quality vegetarian meat alternatives, and its efforts to educate
consumers about the environmental benefits of plant-based diets.
The Impact Report cites internal research to show how Impossible’s sales are
translating into impact — empowering its meat-eating consumer base, 95 percent
of whom are omnivores, to direct their palates towards more climate-beneficial
and land-sparing “meat” options. The company asserts that if everyone who ate an
Impossible Burger in 2018 chose it explicitly over a burger made from cows, we
would have collectively spared greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 250
million driving miles in a typical US car, a land area nearly the size of San
Francisco and enough water to hydrate 3 million people for a year.
“The use of animals to produce food for human consumption has long been taken
for granted as an indispensable part of the global food system,” said Impossible
Foods’ CEO, chairman and founder Dr. Patrick O. Brown. “Yet, global demand
for the foods that have, until now, been produced using animals continues to
surge — and their catastrophic impact on climate, water resources, biodiversity
and ecosystem integrity keeps skyrocketing. Awareness isn’t enough; we need
urgent action.”
It begins with us
Iterating for success at Impossible Foods also involves introspection and
self-measurement. The Impact Report notes its internal commitments to employees,
consumers, communities and, of course, the health of the planet.
With the launch of Impossible Burger 2.0 in January, Impossible Foods worked
with independent sustainability consulting firm, Quantis, to carry out
an updated life cycle
assessment
(LCA). The report details the rigorous comparison of the environmental impact of
the Impossible Burger to that of a conventional beef burger. It also charts
ongoing strategies for even more footprint reductions, including innovations for
water saving technology in heme production and burger manufacturing.
Finally, the report offers a first look at soon-to-be-published research on the
game-changing carbon-capture potential that would be enabled by replacing
livestock with plant-based meat production, and allowing native ecosystems that
have been usurped by feed crops and livestock grazing to recover their original
biomass and biodiversity. The findings help quantify the ways that plant-based
diets can literally turn back the clock on climate change — the landscapes most
valuable for keeping carbon out of the atmosphere are also at the highest risk
of destruction to expand meat production for markets across the world.
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Sustainable Brands Staff
Published Jun 12, 2019 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST