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Brand Purpose Brand Strategy Kind Snacks

Kind Snacks ramps up sustainability efforts with ‘Almond Acres Initiative’

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By Webb Wright, NY Reporter

April 18, 2023 | 6 min read

The brand hopes that its new effort will plant the seeds (literally and figuratively) for its longer-term goal of sourcing 100% of its almonds from regenerative farms.

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Kind says that almonds are the “number one ingredient” used across the brand’s product portfolio. / Adobe Stock

Kind Snacks has launched a new pilot program aimed at reducing its ecological footprint in the almond harvesting industry.

The three-year program, dubbed the Almond Acres Initiative, has been designed to yield “key insights to help inform how [Kind Snacks] can source 100% of its almonds from orchards leveraging regenerative agriculture practices on a mass balance basis by 2030,” according to a press release issued this morning.

The press release also noted that almonds are the “number one ingredient” used in Kind Snacks’ product portfolio.

The almond farming industry has long raised the ire of some environmentalists for its prodigious use of water, particularly in California – the source of roughly 83% of the world’s almond supply, according to data from the Almond Board of California, and also a state that has been acutely devastated by worsening droughts in recent years. California’s almond-farming industry accounts for approximately “17% of the total agricultural water use in California,” according to a 2022 blog post from the California Water Impact Network.

Kind Snacks is partnering with agricultural processing and distribution company Olam Food Ingredients (OFI) to implement a variety of regenerative farming practices – such as cover crops, subsurface irrigation and the use of compost and biochar – across 500 acres of almond-producing farmland in California in the hopes of decreasing the brand's water usage within the state.

The brand has also partnered with Snap to develop an augmented reality (AR) filter which will allow users to learn more about the Almond Acres Initiative and also about regenerative agriculture more broadly. This morning’s press release also states that the pilot program’s upcoming microsite will link to “VR [virtual reality] options,” though no further details are provided.

“We know that regenerative agriculture can be challenging to understand,” Kelly Solomon, Kind’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement. “We know our consumers want to engage in learning how to be kinder to our planet, and that is why we’re welcoming everyone into the living, learning lab that is the Kind Almond Acres Initiative. We believe it is our responsibility to lead the almond industry towards a kinder way to grow almonds, and we are so proud and excited to be the brand paving the way.”

In addition to being positioned as a precursor to Kind's regenerative farming goals, the brand says its new effort is also an extension of its 2022 “commitment to exclusively source its almonds from bee-friendly farmland globally by 2025.”

Kind also announced today that it will begin offering a sustainability-oriented scholarship through the University of California, Merced, and that it has become a member of the California Water Action Collaborative (CWAC) – an organization that describes itself on its website as “a network for diverse stakeholders to come together and pursue collective action projects that will improve water security in California for people, business, agriculture and nature.”

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News of Kind’s new pilot program reflects a broader trend of brands across a swath of industries leaning into sustainability. Last week, for example, the popular Mexican food chain Chipotle announced plans to decrease its carbon footprint by bringing 100% sustainable energy (from wind and solar) to 7,000 existing locations existing across North America and to 100 new locations that are slated to open next year.

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