Felix, a Swedish food brand, has opened a climate-conscious store that will guide buyers to make informed decisions when purchasing food items. In the newly opened store, items are priced based on their carbon footprint. To help buyers understand the impact of their choices on the environment, products in The Climate Store will be bought using carbon equivalents currency (CO2e). The store has allocated each customer a weekly budget of 18.9kg CO2e. This means that customers will have to choose foods carefully, avoiding options with higher carbon footprints to avoid blowing their budgets.
Pricing foods based on their climate impact shows the difference between plant-based foods and animal-derived foods. Many of the foods that we consume are greatly contributing to the pollution of the environment. Although many people would love to make a difference by avoiding such foods, it’s not always clear which items are worse for the planet. Food production is responsible for about one-quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. If customers can be aware of the foods that contribute most carbon, they can make decisions that will help reduce these emissions.
“It will be exciting to see how customers react to trading with the CO2e currency and see if they manage to stay within their weekly budget,” Thomas Sjöberg, marketing manager for Felix, said. “I think it will be an eye-opener for many to see how certain choices affect what [they] can afford to get in the same lunch bag.”
The opening of The Climate Store is just one part of the brand’s long-term sustainability plan. Felix intends to implement comprehensive features that will help its customers make informed choices when purchasing. Come this fall, the brand will be adding labels to all its products to indicate their impact on the environment. Felix expects such labels to help customers reduce the use of environmentally impactful products and increase the intake of plant-based products.
New Swedish grocery to price goods based on carbon footprint [Inhabitat]