Blue Apron Achieves Its Carbon Neutral Goal

Blue Apron—which launched in 2012 to promote planetary and dietary wellness for everyone—said it has met its commitment to become carbon neutral by March 31, 2022, and is now working toward implementing systematic reductions designed to achieve a longer-term goal of net zero, the company said in an April 5 statement.

The New York-based meal kit company said it achieved its goal through the purchase of carbon offsets, based on an initial carbon footprint analysis conducted by Aspiration Sustainable Impact Services LLC. The carbon credits were purchased from Aspiration and cover estimated upstream and downstream emissions that range from sourcing, packaging and transporting Blue Apron’s products. Blue Apron disclosed in a statement that Aspiration is affiliated with the company’s largest shareholder.

The company said that it has met its commitment to become carbon neutral by March 31, 2022, offsetting Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions as defined by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol—the global standardized frameworks to measure and manage greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from private and public sector operations, value chains and mitigation actions.

“Sustainability has always been part of our DNA, and we believe it’s important to conduct our business in a way that mitigates our impact on the world around us,” said Linda Findley, president and CEO of Blue Apron, in a statement. “Achieving our carbon neutrality goal was one of our top priorities. While we are proud of this achievement, we know that there’s more work for us to do, along with others in the industry, to help ensure a better world for future generations.”

The company said its plans to sustain, preserve and build on its sustainability commitment and become carbon neutral is part of Blue Apron’s Better Living Roadmap initiative.

“We believe that delivering delicious meals to our customers around the country, while also playing a key role in promoting planetary and dietary wellness for everyone is critical to our vision of Better Living Through Better Food,” said Findley. “Our Better Living Roadmap is guiding us as we continue to develop our plans to achieve our impact goals, while holding ourselves accountable along the way.”

The Better Living Roadmap is focused on three categories: people, product and progress. In the people category, the company said the focus is on employees, industry partners as well as its community of customers. The company said plans in this category include ongoing development of career growth for its employees; offering competitive wages; and providing a safe and prosperous place for all of its employees. The company also has plans for outreach with regional food banks and other community programs as well as providing employees access to high-quality ingredients at little to no cost to them.

In the product category, Blue Apron said it will continue to build on its value and sustainability efforts that its customers have come to expect from the meal-kit company. To implement this plan, the company said it will continue to offer high-quality ingredients that are responsibly sourced and adhere to animal welfare standards as well as ongoing efforts at reductions in waste, emissions and packaging.

The progress category is where the company said it will focus its energy to help ensure transparency and accountability through governance and non-financial sustainability disclosures. Planned efforts for this category are looking to add more diversity at all levels of the company. The company also said it will conduct an annual sustainability materiality assessment with a broad cross section of senior internal stakeholders to help identify key impact initiatives within the company. Blue Apron also said it will publish a yearly update on the company’s sustainability commitments—including non-financial disclosures in alignment with Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)—currently estimated to start in 2023.

Blue Apron said it will release its first quarter 2022 financial results prior to the opening of the U.S. financial markets on May 9. The meal kit company reported revenue losses in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021. For the period ending Dec. 31, Blue Apron said revenues decreased by 7% to $107 million, and its net loss was $26.4 million. The company lost $11.9 million in the same period of 2020. Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter showed a loss $17.9 million, compared with an adjusted EBITDA loss of $1.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2020.