Why Thrive Market Invests in Carbon Offsets

As we work to bring healthy groceries to members across the country, Thrive Market inevitably creates emissions—primarily from the products we source and sell, as well as how those products are shipped and delivered. Despite our best efforts toward sustainability, these parts of our business have an environmental impact, and that’s something we need to hold ourselves accountable for.

At Thrive Market, we are committed to reducing our footprint at the source. While we’ve made meaningful progress, some emissions remain today. To address those, we invest in high-quality, rigorously vetted carbon credits as a complement to our reduction efforts—not a substitute for them. Here’s more about what that means and how we’re addressing our carbon footprint.

Why Carbon Credits?

While the best way to lessen our impact on the environment is by reducing our carbon footprint, not all emissions can be eliminated today. We invest in carbon credits that support a range of vetted projects, including those that capture and destroy methane from landfills, prevent or reduce the release of high-impact industrial greenhouse gases, and support forest conservation and carbon storage.

How We Verify Carbon Credit Projects

It’s important to ensure that the carbon credits we invest in come from credible, high-quality sources. We evaluate and select projects in partnership with trusted providers, ensuring that the credits we purchase support rigorously vetted initiatives that meet strong standards for transparency and environmental integrity.

Here are the three criteria we follow when selecting carbon offset projects::

• Third-party Verification
  Carbon credits are verified by leading independent standards such as the American Carbon Registry (ACR), Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), Gold Standard, and the Climate Action Reserve (CAR).
  
• Vintage Year Restriction
  Carbon credits must represent avoided emissions or removals from the past four years, with exceptions for forestry and land-use projects that can be from the past seven years.
  
• Portfolio Requirements
  Starting in 2025, we began shifting our portfolio to include a greater share of carbon removal projects alongside carbon avoidance projects, and we are continuing to increase investment in these solutions over time. All carbon credit purchases are tracked by project type and category to help ensure alignment with our environmental criteria.

Our 2025 Initiatives

To address our 2025 emissions, Thrive Market is supporting several impactful projects in 2026. These initiatives help remove or reduce emissions outside of our operations and supply chain. Here are some of the projects we’re supporting:

• Wabassus Improved Forest Management Project
  Located in Maine, this project increases carbon storage by managing forests for higher carbon stocks compared to prior industrial practices. It also helps protect water quality and improve wildlife habitat.
  
• A-Gas HFC Reclamation Project
  This project captures and destroys hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)—highly potent greenhouse gases used in refrigerants—preventing or reducing their release into the atmosphere and delivering immediate, high-impact emissions reductions.
  
• Hudson HFC Reclamation Project
  This project recovers and reclaims refrigerants to prevent the release of high–global warming potential gases, supporting more responsible refrigerant management while generating verified emissions reductions.
  
• Brusque Landfill Gas Project
  Located in Santa Catarina, Brazil, this project captures methane emissions from landfill waste and reduces their impact by combusting the gas through flaring and using it as a fuel source for electricity generation. This process helps mitigate a potent greenhouse gas while supporting local energy production.
  

To learn more about these projects and how we’re continuing to reduce our environmental impact, click here.