Bobo's, known for oat bars, oat bites and baked goods, announced its new partnership with Rabobank's Acorn initiative (Acorn) to help Colorado's snack brand reach its carbon neutrality goals and further invest in a more sustainable future. Bobo's purchase of carbon removal units to offset its bakery carbon emissions is helping to combat climate change. It does so by leveraging Acorn's new and powerful approach to carbon sequestering working with thousands of smallholder farmers using agroforestry. In this case, Bobo's removal credits will be supporting agroforestry practices for local coffee farmers in Tanzania.
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Since its inception in 2003, Bobo's has remained committed to responsible and sustainable business practices that have a positive impact on the environment and community. The company prioritizes responsibly sourced ingredients and packaging when producing its wildly popular baked goods only partnering with ingredient suppliers who source ingredients with integrity. As much as possible, Bobo's uses paperboard and cartons that are certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. It also recently partnered with How2Recycle which uses a standardized labeling system that clearly communicates recycling instructions to Bobo's customers . The company strives to reduce its landfill footprint by 95%, partnering with ReConserve and local farmers to convert our bakery waste to animal feed and in 2022, Bobo's opened a brand new state-of-the-art super bakery in Loveland, CO 100% powered by wind energy.
While historically the carbon credit market has received its fair share of skepticism, Acorn is disrupting the traditional carbon offset model. The company has adopted an entirely new approach to helping responsible organizations, like Bobo's, reach their sustainability goals leveraging the power of agroforestry. Agroforestry is the planting and integration of different species, such as fruit or nut bearing trees, and various crops on the field. Adopting agroforestry practices significantly benefits local farmers because it delivers more diverse crop yields, increased biodiversity and improved soil quality on their farms. It also helps local farmer's businesses become more climate resilient, diversifies their income and improves food security within their local community. As the trees and plants mature and grow, they produce more and more yield while sequestering an increased amount of carbon.
The amount of carbon captured by the trees and plants planted as part of Acorn's agroforestry program is monitored with remote sensing techniques. Each ton of captured carbon represents one carbon removal unit (CRU). These CRU's, which are traceable, certified and nature based, are sold to responsible companies like Bobo's. But it's the local farmers who benefit the most. With 80% of the sales revenue going directly to the farmers, it creates a substantial additional income stream and helps them adopt a more future-proof and sustainable way of farming. The remaining 20% is split evenly between Acorn and its local partners who help coordinate with the local farmers.
