Sustainable Snacks
Welcome to the world of sustainable snacks. John Altman was established by sisters Marie Claire Zernitz-van der Lande and Julie ter Huurne-van der Lande in Amsterdam in 2016. For them it was all about creating a ‘better for you’ snack – both kind to the waist line and the environment. John Altman products range from organic popcorn to different flavored nuts and are all 100% natural, handmade and free from unnecessary additives, palm-oil or e-numbers. You can find them in AHto go, Crisp, Bijenkorf and Hanos. But that’s not all – they are also on a social and sustainable mission. It’s popcorn and planet for these two girls. They are fully committed to limiting their impact on the environment. Believe it or not, a staggering ¼ of global emissions originates from food consumption. Which is where they want to make a real change.
Why Carbon Footprint?
The whole concept fits totally with their brand mission. They were also keen to gain more knowledge on the subject and insights from their contemporaries. Marie Claire explains that as a small company, they have relatively low emissions, but do have a strong plan in place. They are set on reducing their CO2 emissions and invest 1% of their turnover in planting trees. 50% of their packaging is biobased with 50% being 100% recyclable. 30% of their transportation is electric.
They strive to use as little single-use plastic as possible, with a goal to significantly reduce plastic as a whole. Plus they want their strategy to stretch from shareholders to the environment and surrounding community. Their dedication and motivation is already appealing to the consumer – with an increased interest from snack lovers.
When it comes to next steps, Marie Claire and Julie are planning on reducing the negative impact throughout the supply chain and really want to raise awareness with their partners. They are keen to build a climate friendly movement, which permeates throughout the business, whilst inspiring others to act themselves. Ultimately, as their company grows, their footprint gets smaller. A great model!
And in the long term?
It’s all about increasing overall reach, creating awareness and becoming a brand challenger within the snack market. They firmly believe every company or person can make an impact – small steps together can create a mass movement. When talking about their BHAG – they want to have sold 100 million snacks (consumer units) by 2030. Which would also mean planting 10 million trees. They want Climate Change and Carbon Footprint to be at the forefront of the business mind.
Social development goals:
The CO2 track made us gain more knowledge about our CO2 emission. From a theoretically view, but also from sharing experiences from entrepreneurs and ngo’s working on fighting climate change.