‘Pizza was really a proof case’ for climate-friendly food, Planet FWD founder says
As extreme weather events like Hurricane Ida become more frequent and intense due to climate change, one Silicon Valley pizza tech co-founder is creating carbon neutral climate-friendly snack foods.
Julia Collins co-founded Zume Pizza in 2015, a company once valued at more than $1 billion that used robots to automate the pizza-making process. After leaving Zume in 2018, she founded her next venture, Planet FWD, in 2019 to fight the climate impacts of the food system.
“Pizza was really a proof case for a much larger idea about changing the future of food,” Collins, founder and CEO of Planet FWD, told Yahoo Finance (video above). “I’m very, very focused on leveraging the power of our food systems to truly drive toward a more climate-friendly future.”
Planet FWD focuses on the snack food market, which was valued at over $100 billion in 2020. The company sells its own brand of carbon neutral crackers called Moonshot Snacks, which come in various flavors including tomato basil, sourdough sea salt, and rosemary garlic.
Moonshot Snacks has a climate neutral certification because it uses carbon credits to offset its carbon emissions. The company also reduces its environmental impact when cultivating ingredients through the use of regenerative agricultural practices, an approach to farming that focuses on improving the soil’s health.
“For me, it's not about how can I create a billion-dollar company? It's about how can I create a billion-dollar solution? How much value can I create in the world? How different would the world be if I were successful?” Collins said.
The role of technology in the climate-friendly food movement
Planet FWD also launched a digital tool in 2021 that uses technology to help other food brands understand their carbon footprint and how to pursue a path to net-zero emissions.
“We’re building a technological platform that makes it very easy for all brands to do the same thing that we did with Moonshot,” Collins said. “That net-zero goal... is incredibly important for us to be able to reach our goals as a society and as a planet.
“There’s no silver bullet solution to solving the climate crisis,” she added. “There’s no single thing that we can do. We’re starting in snacks, but this idea can apply across all of the consumer products that are part of your life.”
By helping to expand the number of carbon neutral products available to consumers, Collins aims to build a brand new food category called “climate-friendly food” that will inspire consumers to adopt choices that are healthier for the planet.
“I believe that every person has a right to be a part of the solution to climate change," she said. "And beginning with the way that we eat, the way that we consume, what we purchase, that's a really good place for individuals to take action. So yes, the idea is to build a climate-friendly food movement so that we can all be a part of the solution.”
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