Planet

We describe our approach to sustainability in four simple words: Think Like a Tree. Trees run on renewable energy, recycle all waste, and sustain and improve the places they grow. Our mission is to make Clif Bar like a tree.

As a food business, Think Like a Tree means we’re working to craft food with organic, sustainable ingredients made with renewable energy¹ while aspiring to use eco-friendly packaging and deliver by transportation that doesn’t pollute.

Global warming threatens the places we care about deeply, as well as community health, the farming systems we depend on to grow our food, and countless other vital aspects of life. Clif has made climate action a key pillar of our sustainability program for over 20 years. In 2020 we set a science-based target to cut our greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. To reach our goal, we created a roadmap outlining greenhouse gas reduction plans for each source of emissions across our operations and supply chain². We’ll continue supporting climate action as an essential part of our ongoing journey to become a regenerative business.

In 2018, we set the following objectives:

• 100% of our plastic packaging will be reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025
• Reduce virgin plastic in our packaging by 12% by 2025
• 1 million trees planted by 2025
• Use 100% renewable electricity within our eGRID subregion by 2030
• Commit to a 50% reduction of food waste by 2030

From the wilderness to the cities, healthy forests and trees deliver essential benefits for water, wildlife, people, and climate. Healthy forests capture and store carbon, which is why smart reforestation offers a nature-based way to address climate change. We partner with organisations which use research and climate-smart practices to ensure every tree they plant is in the best location to provide maximum benefits to nature and communities. Through Clif Bar’s volunteer efforts and partnerships, we’ve supported reforestation programs for more than 15 years. We’ve helped plant 355,000 trees so far and are working towards our goal of planting a million trees by 2025!

In 2019, Clif Bar & Company proudly signed the Ellen MacArthur Foundation Global Commitment to help create a world where plastic never becomes waste or pollution³. Since then, we’ve been making progress on designing sustainable packaging alternatives and reducing virgin plastic.

In 2020, Clif Bar joined the 10x20x30 Food Loss and Waste Initiative led by the World Resources Institute, whose goal is to cut food loss and waste in half by 2030. In the first two years of our participation, we worked to identify and measure all sources of food waste in our bakeries and innovation centre. In 2020, our baseline year, we generated just under 85 tonnes of food waste, representing approximately 0.17% of our total food material. In 2021, we generated approximately 83 tonnes, or 0.14% of total food material.

1. Generated onsite and sourced through renewable energy credits.
2. Greenhouse gas emissions from business operations and product manufacturing and distribution, i.e., electricity, cooling systems and vehicle fleet.
3. https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/global-commitment/overview