New Plant-Based Brand Launches First Carbon Positive Nutrition Bars

A new plant-based snack brand is making it easier to eat healthy while helping the planet. Created by two “twenty-somethings,” Impact Snacks is a line of nutrition bars that uses functional, plant-based ingredients and comes in a 100% compostable wrapper. It’s not just the packaging that is sustainable: The entire product is “carbon positive," meaning it goes beyond achieving net-zero carbon emissions and actually works to remove additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The brand earned its “carbon positive” status by strategically analyzing each bar’s carbon lifecycle–accounting for harvest, production, packaging, and shipping–and offsetting the total carbon emissions generated for each bar. To negate the impact of carbon emissions, which were calculated at .38 pounds of carbon per bar, Impact Snacks offers credits for purchasers to fund renewable energy projects.

The co-founders of the brand, Corey Nobile and Nick Oliveri, explained their plan: “Early on, consumers will have the choice of either contributing to tree planting projects for reforestation in tropical or arid regions or (with every pound of carbon credits being equivalent to 30 watts of solar energy) contributing to renewable energy projects such as our first one – a solar farm in Jackson, Tennessee!”

The brand hopes to inspire other larger companies to follow its same sustainable model. More and more, big companies are looking for creative ways to make their business models more sustainable.  Recently, Amazon invested $2 billion to fight climate change, and popular plant-based brands like Just Salad and Oatly are employing strategies like including carbon emissions on their menu and introducing electric delivery trucks.

Impact Snacks bars currently come in two flavors, Dark Chocolate and Iced Caramel Latte. Both flavors contain functional ingredients like pea protein, maca, and kale, making Impact Snacks a healthy, protein-filled treat. You can check out the brand's Kickstarter campaign, where the funds raised will go towards the development of a third bar flavor. Saving the planet has never tasted so good!