Climate change is one of the greatest threats and challenges to our planet’s future, and food waste remains a significant contributor towards greenhouse gas emissions. In the United States, roughly 40% of all food produced is ultimately wasted, equivalent to 80 billion pounds or 1,000 Empire State Buildings. This mass amount of wasted food generates 10% of all United States greenhouse gas emissions. In 2020, Vanguard Renewables, Unilever, Starbucks, and Dairy Farmers of America founded the Farm Powered Strategic Alliance, a collaborative group of leading national and regional brands focused on advancing sustainability. The Alliance’s members have shared goals to boost food waste reduction and recycling, expand renewable energy production across America, and support generational farms and regenerative agriculture practices. Since 2020, the Alliance’s membership has grown to include more than 20 national and regional food and beverage companies.

Each Alliance member commits to capturing as much of the food waste inherent in the farming, manufacturing, and sale of food and beverage products and to recycle as much of that waste as commercially feasible via Vanguard’s farm-based anaerobic digestion program. Vanguard also works with Alliance members’ suppliers to recycle their food waste. Members are committed to the advancement of renewable energy and have the potential to procure renewable natural gas produced by Vanguard’s farm-based anaerobic digesters. The Alliance also serves as a brand elevation tool for consumers, investors, and other stakeholders by demonstrating members’ commitments to making choices that will lead us to a more sustainable future.

Vanguard Renewables’ Farm Powered solution is a sustainable model for the treatment of manure and food waste that supports American agriculture while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and producing renewable energy. The Farm Powered Strategic Alliance is a way for sustainability leaders across the food and beverage industry to collaborate towards shared goals. As Jed Davis, Vice President of Strategic Engagement and Sustainability at Cabot said, “there isn’t a reason in the world not to join the FPSA and be part of the solution.”

Vanguard Renewables

Vanguard Renewables

Vanguard Renewables, based in Weston, Massachusetts, is a national leader in developing food and dairy waste-to-renewable energy projects. The Company owns and operates on-farm anaerobic digester facilities in the northeast and currently operates manure-only digesters in the south and west for Dominion Energy. The Company plans to expand to more than 150 anaerobic digestion facilities by 2026. Vanguard Renewables is committed to advancing decarbonization by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from farms and food waste and supporting regenerative agriculture on partner farms through anaerobic digestion. Vanguard Renewables is a portfolio company of BlackRock Real Assets. To learn more about the Company, its energy partners, and the Farm Powered Strategic Alliance, visit www.vanguardrenewables.com

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