Mighty M.lks Go Carbon Neutral!

We take sustainability seriously here at Mighty. It's weaved into everything we do, from our low impact products to our continuously evolving operations.

We are by no means a perfect company. We are constantly learning but we aim to be leaders in our area, encouraging other brands to step forward and take positive action. 

We have a lot to do and this will undoubtedly be a very long journey for us, but we want you - our Mighty society - to come on this journey with us. 

 

How it began:

In case you missed it, we've been working with the fantastic guys over at Mondra and Foundation Earth to assess the environmental impacts of our five 1ltr Mighty M.lks. Our life-cycle analysis (LCA) tracks our impact from raw material extraction, right up to the cartons being placed on a shelf in your local supermarket (a ‘cradle to customer’ analysis). 

 

What are we measuring? 

Well, these assessments cover four main areas:

Carbon (CO2e)

This is a measure of all the greenhouse gases that are emitted when our products are created, and their cumulative impact on global warming. 

Water Usage (Scarcity)

We didn't just look at the amount of freshwater used but where that water is drawn from and then multiplied it by a number based on how scarce fresh water is in that location.

Water Pollution (Eutrophication)

We need crops for our products, and these crops need fertiliser to grow. This fertiliser runs off the fields, rich with nutrients, into open waterways such as lakes and rivers. Micro-plants called algae love it. They run wild and rob those below the surface of oxygen and sunlight. 

Biodiversity

This is a measure of every single critter, flower and creepy-crawly in a region. We've measured the risk of losing an entire species generated by land change made to farm the crops (habitat destruction). A species lost means reduced biodiversity, which means reduced stability of the natural world. 

 

How does Mighty stack up? 

Humblebrag right here, but we scored an overall 'A' across the board for our Mighty M.lks. This means they score well on all of the above categories. We've still got some work to do in regards to water usage, but we are working with our partners to improve in this area, so watch this space.  

 

 

OK, so what next?

We love being able to proudly design such low impact products, but – as with anything – our products do still have some carbon emissions, and we are taking responsibility for those emissions.

To do this, we wanted to go one step further than our ‘cradle to customer’ analysis and include all areas of our products’ lifecycle which have a meaningful carbon footprint; so we enlisted the help of ClimatePartner to help us add the ‘end-of-life’ phase, producing a ‘cradle to customer, plus end-of-life’ analysis. In doing so, we’re accounting for the fact that not everyone will be keeping their empty cartons on a shelf, pride of place in their living room (sorry Tom).

With that done, we’re able to confidently compensate for the emissions we’re still producing by supporting carbon offset projects – making our Mighty M.lks carbon neutral.

 

What does carbon neutral mean?

There are a lot of confusing terms being used today; but put simply – carbon neutral means that the carbon footprint of a product has been calculated and verified, and that the footprint has been fully offset by supporting internationally verified projects.

 

But wait! Isn't carbon offsetting just like putting a plaster over the wider problem? 

We fully agree that offsetting alone is not the solution, but the latest science tells us that reductions alone are not enough to fight the climate crisis. Therefore, it makes sense for us to compensate for the emissions we haven’t yet been able to remove, by supporting amazing projects. We believe offsetting and reductions are the solution – not one or the other.

And as for the offset projects themselves – they’re brilliant. They avoid, reduce or remove carbon from the atmosphere whilst supporting local communities to improve their quality of life, and are verified by international standards to do so. Find out more about our projects here.

Over the next few years, we plan to assess our entire product range and work with Mondra, Foundation Earth, Climate Partner, and some of the top boffins within and outside of our industry to help set reduction targets, and more importantly, to make sure we stick to them. 

We've pledged to be a net-zero business by 2030, and this is our first step to getting there.