Foundation Earth welcomes Foodsteps, a start-up helping food companies calculate their ecological footprint, to its pool of environmental impact assessment experts. The new collaboration will allow us to grow capacity in delivering eco impact scores at scale, while avoiding further fragmentation within the food ecolabelling sector.
The collaboration was born from a shared vision of a food system that doesn’t harm the planet, leveraging data transparency and consumer awareness to do so. Within the partnership, Foodsteps will apply the Foundation Earth method and principles to measure the environmental impact of a range of products through Life Cycle Assessments (LCA), leading to the aggregated eco impact score on front-of-pack.
The partnership marks another step forward in Foundation Earth’s proactive movement to initiate collaboration and drive harmonisation of food ecolabels across the EU and UK. With already many existing labels on the market, a harmonised framework is essential to avoid confusion among consumers and industry players alike. Working with companies such as Foodsteps supports the greater mission to build an open-source, democratic model for environmental food labelling that can be scaled at a global level.
“We are excited and proud to join forces with Foodsteps in our common goal to drive sustainability within the food value chain. Our mutual ambition to make ecolabelling the new norm and avoid proliferation will be at the heart of our work,” says Cliona Howie, CEO of Foundation Earth.
Foodsteps bring with them expertise in environmental science, food systems and software development, as well as vast experience in helping businesses measure and reduce their environmental footprint at every stage of the food value chain. Their platform traces not only carbon footprint, but also land use, water use and water pollution of over 3000 ingredients. The UK-founded start-up has been recognised for its excellence of service, recently closing a successful seed funding round bringing in $4.1 million.
“Foundation Earth highlights the need to build trusted data about food environmental impacts. We couldn’t agree more, and we believe consistent measurement is a first step to rapid progress. We look forward to collaborating with Foundation Earth and its members and partners,” says Andrew Stephen, Chief Impact Officer at Foodsteps.
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