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.

At Thrive Market, we are committed to reducing our environmental impact. While we’ve made significant strides in reducing our emissions, some are unavoidable. In those cases, we have chosen to neutralize those emissions by investing in carbon offset credits that support rigorous, vetted projects. Here’s more about what that means and how we’re addressing our carbon footprint.

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 variety of vetted projects. These projects help capture methane gas from landfills, generate renewable energy, and support forest conservation efforts.

How We Verify Carbon Offset Projects

It’s important to ensure that the carbon offset credits we invest in come from trustworthy sources. That’s why we work with trusted partners who ensure that the credits we purchase support only rigorously vetted projects. These projects meet high standards for transparency and environmental integrity.

Here are the three points we follow when selecting carbon offset projects:

• Third-party Verification
  Carbon credits must be verified according to reputable standards, such as the Gold Standard, Verified Carbon Standard, or the Climate Action Reserve.
  
• Vintage Year Restriction
  Carbon credits must represent avoided emissions or removals from the past four years, with exceptions for forestry and land-use projects that can be from the past seven years.
  
• Portfolio Requirements
  Starting this year, we are committed to beginning a shift towards supporting carbon removal projects over carbon avoidance projects. All carbon credit purchases will be tracked based on the project categories and types, ensuring that we prioritize projects that meet stringent environmental criteria.

Our 2025 Initiatives

To offset our 2024 emissions, Thrive Market is supporting several impactful projects. These initiatives help remove or reduce emissions outside of our operations and supply chain. Here are some of the projects we’re supporting in 2024:

• Bonos Communitatario IFM Removals
  This project focuses on forest conservation and carbon sequestration, removing CO2 from the atmosphere while helping to protect biodiversity and support local communities.
  
• Ningxia Xiangshan Wind Farm
  Located in Ningxia, China, this wind farm contributes to the generation of renewable energy, reducing carbon emissions by displacing coal-fired power plants.
  
• Manantiales Behr Wind Farm
  Located in Chubut, Argentina, this wind farm generates renewable energy for the local power grid, helping to reduce the region’s dependence on non-renewable energy sources.
  
• Canadian Valley LFG
  This project captures landfill gas and converts it into renewable energy, preventing methane emissions from entering the atmosphere and reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
  
• Rio Grande Valley LFG
  Located in Texas, this project captures methane emissions from a landfill, transforming it into electricity for the local power grid, thus reducing environmental impact.
  

To learn more about these projects and how we’re continuing to reduce our environmental impact, click here.