13 NEXTY Awards finalists take the lead on environmental, social impacts
Find out which food and beverage finalists for the Expo East 2022 NEXTY Awards topped HowGood’s sustainability ratings.
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Best New Planet-forward Product | Finalist HowGood Impact Score: 86 The ingredients in Minor Figures Barista Oat are produced from crops that have a very low blue water footprint and are grown in locations with low blue water scarcity. Minor Figures Barista Oat scores the highest of all of the NEXTY finalists and qualifies for all four HowGood sustainability attributes: Climate Friendly, Minimally Processed, Water Smart and Clean Label.
Best New Supplement | Finalist HowGood Impact Score: 77 BeeKeeper’s Naturals is a Certified B Corporation, which means it must meet very high standards for environmental and social conduct and public transparency. The brand is also actively engaged in advocacy for bee protection.
Best New Frozen Product | Finalist HowGood Impact Score: 77 Plant-based Crab Cakes from Sophie’s Kitchen pose a low risk to healthy biodiverse soils. It also qualifies for the Minimally Processed and Climate Friendly attributes, meaning it has a low carbon footprint and uses minimal energy for processing.
Best New Product Supporting A Plant-Based Lifestyle | Finalist HowGood Impact Score: 76 Hodo’s plant-based egg mix has GHG emissions that are lower than 70% of all products assessed, qualifying it for the HowGood Climate Friendly attribute. HowGood has data on more than 1 million products in the food system and assessed a sample set of more than 280,000 products for the Climate Friendly attribute.
Best New Condiment, Sauce and/or Dip | Finalist HowGood Impact Score: 76 Niramaya’s Super Greens Saag is minimally processed, meaning ingredients are not subject to commercial or industrial processing. This type of processing has a smaller carbon footprint compared to products that use more energy-intensive methods, such as chemical or high heat.
Best New Savory or Salty Snack | Finalist HowGood Impact Score: 74 Maine Crisps are made with lower-energy processing. This product also poses little threat to soil health and biodiversity, given the ingredients and where they are grown.
Best New Planet-Forward Product | Finalist HowGood Impact Score: 71 Kelp sourced from Maine in the United States is associated with significantly better labor conditions than kelp from elsewhere in the world—particularly China, where much of the world’s kelp supply is grown. This product also qualifies as Minimally Processed, Clean Label and Water Smart.
Best New Product Supporting a Plant-Based Lifestyle | Finalist HowGood Impact Score: 70 This product has low blue water impact, meaning its ingredients do not require a lot of water from a water-scarce region. The GHG emissions associated with processing its ingredients are low, and the way the ingredients are grown supports basic current local biodiversity.
Best New People-Forward Product | Finalist HowGood Impact Score: 69 GHG emissions and processing emissions associated with salt are very low. Although saffron’s emissions are higher, the low ratio of saffron to salt in this product doesn’t significantly increase the carbon footprint of Rumi Saffron Seasoned Salt.
Best New Sweet or Dessert | Winner HowGood Impact Score: 69 The Pumpkin Gelato Pie requires less processing of ingredients, which tends to result in products with better ingredient quality. This type of low-impact processing qualifies this product as Minimally Processed and Climate Friendly.
Best New Meat or Dairy Alternative | Finalist HowGood Impact Score: 69 The ingredients in this plant-based cheese pose a very low risk to soil biodiversity. The majority of the ingredients in this product are grown in regions associated with minimal risk of poor labor conditions.
Best New Product Supporting a Plant-Based Lifestyle | Winner HowGood Impact Score: 68 The kelp for Atlantic Sea Farm’s Basil Sea-Veggie Burgers is grown with regenerative aquaculture, which helps remove carbon and nitrogen from the the ocean. The brand supports nine regional harbors and 27 farmers. The burgers are not highly processed, which further lowers their carbon impact.
Best New Special Diet Food | Winner HowGood Impact Score: 65 Fody is a Certified B Corporation, meaning it must meet very high standards for environmental and social conduct, as well as public transparency. This salsa uses minimal heat, fermentation and physical extraction–ingredient processes associated with low GHG emissions.
Best New Special Diet Food | Winner HowGood Impact Score: 65 Fody is a Certified B Corporation, meaning it must meet very high standards for environmental and social conduct, as well as public transparency. This salsa uses minimal heat, fermentation and physical extraction–ingredient processes associated with low GHG emissions.
New Hope Network's newest product discovery tool, Beacon, is scheduled to debut at Natural Products Expo West 2023. In addition to Beacon's many resources, HowGood offers a sustainability analysis to help brands, suppliers and retailers understand their environmental, social and governance impact. Through its partnership with New Hope Network, HowGood has assessed the sustainability and environmental effects of some of this year’s Expo East 2022 NEXTY Awards finalists from the food and beverage categories. Overall, NEXTY finalists outperform grocery items across retailers when it comes to environmental impact and sustainability measures.
Learn the details of the assessments, then click through the gallery to see the selected products' scores.
Impact score
The HowGood Impact Score, available in Beacon, is a combination of HowGood’s eight core metrics, which give a nuanced and holistic view of the impact an ingredient has on people and the planet. These core metrics include GHG emissions, blue water usage, soil health, biodiversity, animal welfare, processing, land use and labor risk exposure.
Although the Impact Score is measured on a scale of 1 to 100, the scoring system is an aspirational one. Across 2 million products, the average score is 54.
Greenhouse gas emissions and processing
Global food systems are responsible for a tremendous portion of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs): 34%, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Nearly three-quarters of those emissions are a result of on-farm practices before fossil-fuel-thirsty transportation and distribution even come into the picture. More than 80% of GHGs produced by the global food system are due to agricultural production and land-use change, both activities that occur in the cradle-to-farm-gate stage.
Varying amounts of energy are used in the factory processing of any ingredient. It is useful to look at GHG emissions and processing together when considering an ingredient's overall contribution to climate change, as GHG emissions cover the first stage of an ingredient's journey, while processing includes the next stage.
Blue water
Blue water usage is a measure of the amount of blue water required to grow a given ingredient, adjusted for the degree of blue water scarcity in the location where the ingredient is grown. Blue water appropriation refers to the withdrawal and use of water from freshwater lakes, rivers and aquifers for human activities.
Blue water resources are generally scarcer and have higher opportunity costs than green water, which makes focusing on blue water more impactful for food companies interested in reducing their water footprint. Blue water is also the component of a product’s water footprint that a company has the most control over. By making water-conscious decisions along the supply chain, companies can influence their impact and reduce their blue water footprint.
Climate friendly, minimally processed, clean label and water smart
HowGood also qualifies products for certain sustainability certifications, which can be displayed on-pack and on-shelf. In HowGood’s roundup, five of the 13 most sustainable NEXTY finalists qualify for at least one of the following attributes:
“Climate Friendly” recognizes food products whose GHG emissions that are lower than 70% of all products assessed.
“Minimally Processed” recognizes food products made with lower-energy processing, which reduces environmental impact.
“Clean Label” products have a simple formula with seven or fewer ingredients that are all minimally processed.
“Water Smart” food products are less of a stress on the water supply in the regions where their ingredients are produced.
The right tools
Ingredient-sourcing decisions are the most important tools to improve product sustainability, especially when manufacturers buy large amounts. Small adjustments to sourcing location or adding a certification can make a meaningful difference. By focusing on which ingredients are used, where they are sourced from and how they are produced, brands have the power to drive holistic impact and drastically reduce their overall footprint.
HowGood enables product formulators to understand the impact of ingredients, sourcing locations and agricultural practices before they determine the final ingredients for their products. Scenario planning can illustrate the impact on each of these metrics during the product development phase.
Through Beacon, HowGood exoises environmental and social data that can track and improve an individual product or portfolio. This data is intended to educate brand teams of their environmental impact. Interested parties can work directly with HowGood to track scope 3 emissions, find alternate ingredient sources and determine the environmental and social claims their products may be eligible for.
To learn more about how HowGood can help brands measure, improve and track their GHG emissions, reach out to [email protected].
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