In 2021, Riverside Natural Foods continued to impact the world through our sustainability efforts and innovation in product development. Our 2021 Impact Report showcases the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) efforts we have undertaken in the past year and highlights the progress made on initiatives presented in our inaugural 2020 Sustainability Report.
Despite a challenging year, we have continued to make impactful steps towards realizing our purpose of inspiring a healthier and more compassionate world.
Some highlights of 2021:
- We contributed $440K in financial support & $50K of in-kind donations to our many inspiring partners.
- We launched a regenerative agriculture pilot program with a cohort of farmers from our oat vendor partner, MGM Seed & Grain’s network. We also brought in agronomist expertise from our program delivery partners at Canadian Organic Growers. This project is still in its first phase, which is set to be completed after the 2022 harvest season.
- We collaborated with our agave syrup vendor partner, BestGround, and local NGO, BioTu, in developing a project to establish a Sustainability Education Centre in Jocotepec near Lake Chapala in Jalisco, Mexico.
- We partnered with rePurpose Global, participating in their Plastic Neutral program, where we’ve purchased nearly 300 tons worth of plastic credits to offset our plastic footprint.
- We committed to working towards reducing our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 42% by 2030 in line with the target set, measuring, disclosing, and reducing scope 3 emissions, and publicly reporting our company wide GHG emissions on an annual basis.
This report highlights our responsible business philosophy and how we value collaboration with like-minded vendor partners that share similar purposes, goals, and beliefs.
We publish this report to encourage honest conversations with all our stakeholders, allowing us to critically assess our social responsibility and environmental stewardship initiatives and take the necessary steps to ensure we realize our Vision 2025 goals.
Ensuring we transparently communicate our efforts in this format each year supports our desire to be held accountable for our actions and remember to celebrate our accomplishments.
Over time, these reports will capture our journey and evolution as an organization trying to impact the world positively. We acknowledge we are a work in progress and are both encouraged and inspired by other organizations integrating ESG best practices into their business models.
As we continue to learn through our actions, we are eager to hear from you.
Please share your ideas with us, as we are looking forward to sharing them.