MOM’s Organic Market has a long history of environmental stewardship. In 1987, founder Scott Nash recognized the demand for organic food and its vast benefits for our environment and fighting climate change. He decided to start a company to deliver on that need in a way that demonstrates responsible and sustainable business practices. Today, MOM’s has stores in four states and Washington, D.C. and has created a culture centered on its purpose to protect and restore the environment.
Consistent with this culture, MOM’s has matched its total electricity with renewable energy since 2005. The company also practices strict energy and packaging efficiency at all locations, installed on-site solar in three locations, and has a 1.5-megawatt off-site solar farm in Kingsville, MD, which supports approximately 25% of its total power needs. But MOM’s was eager to make an even greater impact and enlisted the support of 3Degrees to further evolve its renewable energy strategy and help build plans to address the company’s long term climate goals.
Challenges
MOM’s Organic Market has a lean sustainability team with ambitious environmental goals. In addition to the on-site solar that had already been installed on several of the company’s facilities, MOM’s had matched the remainder of its Scope 2 emissions with high-quality, certified renewable energy credits. However, in order to gain access to a more competitive REC market and open up additional funds to reinvest in broader high impact sustainability initiatives, MOM’s turned to 3Degrees to help support its renewable energy sourcing.
Demonstrating an even deeper commitment to environmental sustainability, MOM’s launched its “CARbon OFFset” campaign to address the emissions generated by the retailer’s customers traveling to and from its stores. Armed with the store-level zip code data collected annually, MOM’s turned to 3Degrees to help process this data, determine CO2 equivalencies, and invest in high-quality carbon offset projects to cover the total output of their customers’ tailpipe emissions.
The 3Degrees team helped MOM’s craft a plan that would address both the company’s renewable energy and carbon reduction goals, while meeting its business and financial criteria.
How we helped
Renewable Energy
3Degrees developed a portfolio of Green-e® Energy certified wind facilities across the United States that would allow MOM’s to support renewable energy generation by purchasing enough zero-emitting wind RECs to cover the remainder of emissions from its electricity use.
Carbon Offset Projects
In order to offset its customers’ carbon footprint, MOM’s had to first measure the emissions created from their shopping trips. Every year, the company collects zip code information in store and calculates the average distance customers traveled, then multiplies that by the annual customer count across its 19 stores. 3Degrees uses this information to calculate the equivalent carbon emissions associated with this travel, then identifies high-quality, third-party verified carbon reduction projects to offset these emissions.
Today MOM’s Organic Market invests in a variety of different carbon reduction project types across the United States including landfill methane capture, anaerobic digester (manure methane capture), and emissions capture from U.S. coal mines. These projects all prevent potent greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere and reduce MOM’s overall carbon footprint from its business operations.
Results
Since becoming a 3Degrees customer in 2015, MOM’s Organic Market has:
- Purchased more than 47,600 wind RECs to match its direct electricity emissions
- Prevented more than 225M pounds of CO2 from being released into the environment
MOM’s Organic Market continues to investigate new technologies and avenues to further reduce its impact on the environment. Its environmental commitment and associated sustainability initiatives have also translated into strong customer satisfaction ratings and customer loyalty.
Based on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator: www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator
“Being an environmentally-focused company not only helps the world be a better place, it also helps our business’s bottom line by increasing employee morale and customer loyalty. With expanding options for solar and renewable energy, we hope other businesses follow suit.”