We interviewed Reewild's Sustainability Analyst, Sorrell Cowen, to hear about the great work Reewild is doing when it comes to addressing carbon emissions from our food & drink.
What is the Reewild mission?
We know that millions of people want to take action on the climate crisis, but many feel they lack the tools and information to do so.
This is why we created Reewild: to bring climate transparency to consumer goods, incentivise a shift towards greener products and connect responsible brands with conscious consumers.
Our ambition is to bring full climate transparency to the consumer goods market, starting with food and drink, so consumers have a clear understanding of the environmental impact of different products.
How does the new Reewild App work?
Our new first-of-its-kind app brings full transparency on the climate impact of everyday food and drink products. For the first time, shoppers will be able to discover the carbon footprint of hundreds of thousands of ingredients, recipes, and products, through an in-app search function or by scanning a barcode.
Each item in the database carries a traffic light rating from A to E denoting its impact on the environment, and a unique Carbon Calorie (CC) value. One CC – a unit we’ve coined to simplify the understanding of a product’s impact - equates to 1g of CO2e emitted throughout the lifecycle of the product, from farm to fork.
How can it help me be more sustainable?
The app invites users to track their daily consumption, by logging the items they consume in their personal carbon footprint tracker, in the mould of successful calorie counting apps such as MyFitness Pal.
The aim is to remain below a pre-set Carbon Calorie Goal, calculated in line with climate targets. To do so, users receive recommendations for switches to greener products and are rewarded for improving their footprint, unlocking exclusive discounts and promotions from sustainable brands.
How else are you empowering users to take climate action?
However sustainably we strive to live, certain emissions are unavoidable.
“Reewilders” – as we call our community members – have the power to make amends by investing in certified reforestation projects that not only protect and restore nature, but also remove carbon from the atmosphere, helping to compensate for their climate impact.
These monthly subscriptions start from as little as £4.60 a month.
Why have you focused on food and drink?
We’ve decided to focus on food and drink initially, as it’s probably the single most effective lever we all have to reduce our footprint on a daily basis.
The global food system is responsible for almost 1/3 of all global greenhouse gas emissions, so we all have the power to take climate action, one meal at a time.
We want people to track and reduce their food footprint and it also helps that there's already an ingrained behaviour around tracking your calories, so we don't necessarily need to instigate people to adopt a whole new form of action altogether.
While our focus is on food and drink for now, we’ve built our technology to scale into other consumer goods, such as fashion and beauty. So before you know it, we’ll hopefully be providing you with radical climate transparency on everything you buy.
What’s next for Reewild?
Over the coming weeks we plan to add many more features to the app, including AI integrations, and enhanced gamification, to drive more engagement. This will include challenges, badges, rewards, league tables, and several monetary incentives to make green behaviour not only better for the planet, but better for people’s wallets.
More broadly, we aim to create a movement of Reewilders, reducing their footprint and pressuring brands and retailers to do the same. The larger our community the greater the impact, so if you’re reading this please download the app and join us in our mission to create a better, greener future!
Download the Reewild app: https://reewild.com/download/