10-27-218:00 am
Bill Gates’s latest big climate investment is . . . milk
The aptly named Neutral is a climate-neutral milk trying to push low-carbon solutions in dairy farming by sourcing all its milk from farms using carbon reduction techniques.
By Adele Peters3 minute Read
On the front of a carton of milk from the Portland, Oregon-based brand Neutral, above the brand name, the package has a short message in large print: “This milk fights climate change.” On its website, the company lists the number of pounds of CO2 that were offset to give the milk that tagline—12 pounds, in the case of a carton of organic 2% milk. The company works with dairies to reduce emissions as much as possible, and then offsets the rest, making each product carbon neutral.
“Because consumers are buying this milk, we’re investing directly in dairy farms on climate reduction technologies and projects,” says Marcus Lovell Smith, CEO of Neutral, which claims to be the first carbon-neutral food brand in the U.S., though others are also now offsetting their footprints. (Some larger companies plan to soon hit the goal, like the salad chain Sweetgreen; a larger dairy brand, Stonyfield Organic, plans to have a carbon-positive dairy supply chain by the end of the decade.) Neutral announced today that it raised a seed round of funding led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the climate-focused VC fund founded by Bill Gates. The milk also recently went on shelves nationwide at Whole Foods. “All in all, dairy accounts for 3% of all global emissions, more than the entire aviation sector, and by working with farmers to reduce emissions, Neutral Foods is addressing one of the largest areas for climate impact,” says Carmichael Roberts, business lead of Breakthrough Energy Ventures’ investment committee.
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