The Superior Nut Company

The Superior Nut Company, a nut and candy manufacturing plant located in Cambridge MA, has recently achieved a unique milestone in terms of environmental sustainability by reaching 100% carbon neutrality through reforestation. Superior is the only known business of its size that has accomplished this feat.  Reforest the Tropics partnered with Superior Nut in 1998 to perform a voluntary CO2-emission inventory of Superior Nut’s operations. The information from this inventory was used to plan Superior Nut’s first carbon-offset forest in Costa Rica.

Since that time, Superior Nut has sponsored a total of five tropical carbon-offset forests over 32 hectares to fully balance their global warming emissions. Each acre of their forests will balance 10 metric tons of CO2 every year for 25 years under contract with the farm.

While Superior will benefit from sequestration and long-term storage, the owner of the farms in Costa Rica will benefit from income every 5 years from selling periodic thinnings programmed in the management plan. After the 25-contract is finished, the farmer will be able to sell carbon-offset credits on the world market.

Superior Nut Company has received some acknowledgement from its commitment to environmental sustainability.  Superior was recognized with the prestigious Environmental Merit Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and received a “Best in Class” recognition from Walmart for Innovation in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In recent years, Superior Nut Company has enjoyed record sales and has expanded its portfolio of buyers.  It is clear that Superior’s investments towards sustainability have directly yielded additional revenues.  For example, Superior Nut was classified as a “Social Mission Vendor” and became a preferred supplier to Ben & Jerry’s, a division of Unilever.  Superior Nut’s direct and active involvement in planting their own trees through RTT, and their commitment to social and environmental projects earned this special classification.