PureCircle Releases Industry’s First Published Farm to Sweetener Carbon and Water Footprint

PureCircle’s announcement builds on earlier sustainability efforts by the company. In 2011, it announced its Sustainability Commitment, which highlighted initiatives across social, environmental and public health platforms spanning its global supply chain.

12 April 2012 --- PureCircle, the world’s leading producer and marketer of high purity stevia ingredients, released the industry’s first published farm to sweetener carbon and water footprint, covering each stage of the company’s vertically integrated supply chain. The results reveal that PureCircle’s stevia sweeteners can help manufacturers significantly reduce carbon and water footprints in food and beverage reformulations.

In a whitepaper released today, PureCircle published that its high purity stevia sweeteners have a carbon footprint that is as much as 82% lower and a water footprint that is as much as 97% lower than other publicly available sweetener benchmarks. PureCircle’s findings were based on measurement of fiscal year 2011 production of its high purity sweeteners. The footprints were conducted by Camco, UK, a leading independent water and carbon footprint expert and further peer-reviewed by leading footprint experts, Dr. Tim Hess of Cranfield University, UK and Zahir Lazcano, an independent consultant.

Commenting on the study, Jason Hecker, PureCircle Vice President of Global Marketing and Innovation stated, “We are very pleased to share the results of our recent study with the industry, particularly at a time when major manufacturers are looking for solutions to reduce their environmental impacts. Control of our supply chain is the essential reason that we were able to fully measure our footprint and put initiatives in place to continuously improve as we scale. We believe that focusing on sustainability is integral to the growth of stevia as the next mass volume natural sweetener.”

PureCircle’s announcement builds on earlier sustainability efforts by the company. In 2011, it announced its Sustainability Commitment, which highlighted initiatives across social, environmental and public health platforms spanning its global supply chain. To further measure its potential public health impacts in 2010, the company announced the creation of new footprint terminology, the Calorie Footprint, a measure of the potential impact its high purity stevia sales to date could have on global diets. By the end of FY 2011, PureCircle crossed a one trillion calorie footprint milestone and announced its assets on the ground could help to reduce over two trillion calories per year.