Perfect Day’s Brave Robot To Carbon Label Animal-Free Real Dairy Ice Creams

Brave Robot, the animal-free ice cream brand made with Perfect Day’s precision fermentation real dairy proteins, will begin displaying its carbon footprint on its packaging. The company claims the move will make it the first dairy ice cream product in U.S. retail to publish its footprint, which according to a life-cycle assessment is 34% lower compared to its traditional dairy counterparts. 

Brave Robot, the animal-free ice cream brand launched by The Urgent Company, announced it will be “first dairy ice cream in U.S. grocery stores to publish its carbon footprint on packaging”. Describing the move as a response to rising consumer demand for sustainable offerings, the brand’s ice creams will now showcase the results of its independent life-cycle assessment. 

According to the assessment, the absolute carbon footprint of Brave Robot’s cruelty-free and lactose-free ice cream pint is 0.76 kgCO2e, which is approximately 34% lower compared to traditional dairy ice creams. 

Brave Robot is made using animal-free whey proteins developed by Californian food tech Perfect Day, whose precision fermentation technology enables an emissions reduction by at least 85% and up to 97% compared to conventionally farmed dairy. Perfect Day first announced these results in April, in conjunction with the establishment of its new Sustainability Council, of which Leonardo DiCaprio and a number of climate experts and scientists are members of. 

We will continue to quantify our environmental impact in the months ahead, giving our customers a deeper understanding of how they benefit the planet when they choose Brave Robot.

Paul Kollesoff, Founder & General Manager, The Urgent Company

“Reducing the impact of manufacturing the foods we love is at the core of what we do,” commented Paul Kollesoff, founder and general manager at The Urgent Company. Kollesoff created the sustainable food venture with Perfect Day’s co-founders Ryan Pandya and Perumal Gandhi last year. 

“In order to improve anything, you have to measure it first. We will continue to quantify our environmental impact in the months ahead, giving our customers a deeper understanding of how they benefit the planet when they choose Brave Robot over a traditional dairy pint of ice cream.” 

Brave Robot says that its lower carbon footprint is also attributable to the more eco-friendly packaging it uses, with all its containers made from FSC-certified paper, sugarcane-based liner and petroleum-free seals that make it 100% recyclable. 

In addition to featuring the greenhouse gas emissions of each animal-free pint, the brand says that its containers will display a QR code to allow customers to “dive deeper” into its sustainability practices. 

We believe that greater transparency around GHG emission metrics is an important step to promote climate literacy.

John Spear, VP Marketing, The Urgent Company

The decision to carbon label products is a growing trend amongst food producers, as brands seek to differentiate themselves from their competitors with their sustainability benefits. Among the growing list of businesses that have carbon labelled their products include British natural plant-based energy drink Tenzing, Upfield, the maker of plant-based dairy-free spreads like Flora and Becel, and legacy meat-free brand Quorn. 

“Carbon labelling of consumer products is a growing trend, and we believe that greater transparency around GHG emission metrics is an important step to promote climate literacy,” said John Spear, vice president of marketing at The Urgent Company. 

“We want people to understand that the smallest of changes in diet can have an outsized impact on the climate. For retailers interested in reducing their overall impact, Brave Robot Ice Cream is an opportunity for them to carry items in line with the growing demand for planet-friendly options, reducing their own impact in the process.” 

Aside from being incorporated in Brave Robot’s ice creams, the animal-free dairy proteins developed by Perfect Day have been used to make Ice Age! ice creams in Hong Kong and the food tech says it is planning to launch into new product categories, starting with cheese. 

In April, the firm said in a statement that “innovations in the cheese category and beyond are slated for this year.” 

Lead image courtesy of The Urgent Company.