We’re excited to bring Transform 2022 back in person on July 19 and pretty much July 20-28. Join AI and data leaders for insightful conversations and exciting networking opportunities. Register today!
Based in New York How gooda company that provides a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform to empower enterprises with sustainability information today announced it has raised $12.5 million in a new funding round.
As climate change wreaks havoc around the world, organizations are driving initiatives to make their products and operations more sustainable. The aim is to measure environmental and social impacts (from carbon emissions and biodiversity to human impacts of supply systems), but obtaining the data related to these aspects requires the time-consuming task of sorting through individual studies and research . Moreover, there is no standardized methodology to obtain the insights.
Sustainability intelligence from HowGood
HowGood started in 2007 to collect all this data in one place and give the different players in the food industry an easy way to understand their current impact and see where they can improve their operations to become more sustainable. The company initially rated products in supermarkets, but then expanded to business units and then launched Latis, a dedicated solution for sustainability information.
Backed by what HowGood claims is the world’s largest database on ingredient and product sustainability, Latis performs instant analysis for more than 33,000 ingredients, chemicals and materials and provides detailed insights into product R&D processes.
“With a simple, easy-to-use SaaS platform, food brands and retailers can view the impact of any ingredient, source location, or sustainability standard,” Alexander Gillett, HowGood’s CEO and co-founder, told businesstraverse.com.
“Insights on metrics including environmental impact, occupational risk and animal welfare are readily available throughout the entire process of formulating a product. Team leaders can also drill down into micro-level analysis of ingredient impact data to see the full impact of their portfolio based on metrics such as annual carbon footprint, water use or inherent labor risks, track their progress toward goals, and benchmark their brand against industry standards and key competitors.” he added
In total, the solution draws on more than 550 independent data sources and certifications to provide UPC-level impact data for more than two million products – all at the level of individual ingredient analysis. This can then be used by brands to determine how and where changes can be made throughout the food product lifecycle to improve holistic sustainability. It also helps them meet the increasing consumer demand for transparency and environmentally friendly production.
Grow
Especially in the wake of the SEC’s new climate disclosure proposal, HowGood has seen a high demand for its solution. The company’s annual sales doubled in the past year, with leading retailers, suppliers and restaurants in the food and beverage industry. It also counts five of the 10 largest CPGsincluding Danone North America, to its customers.
HowGood isn’t the only player in this space, though. SourceMap, SustainLife, SupplyShift and Ecovadis also drive product and operational sustainability for companies, but according to HowGood their data isn’t quite as comprehensive.
“We are the unique, end-to-end solution on the market that provides food brands and retailers actionable insights into product impact…, leveraging data not available on any other platform. We also continue to expand the metrics available in Latis through strategic research and implementation, most recently with One Planet Business for Biodiversity’s (OP2B) regenerative agricultural statistics and the EU’s Eco-Score and Nutri-Score scoring systems,” emphasizes Gillett.
Plan ahead
With this funding round, led by Titan Grove, HowGood plans to grow its internal teams, improve its sustainability intelligence product, expand industry partnerships in the US and Europe, and move beyond the food industry.
“This funding round enables HowGood to build our capacity to onboard and support more customers as we triple our team this year, and continue to add truly unique and comprehensive datasets to the Latis platform. , so that companies can make impactful changes in their value. system,” Gillett said. “The new features added to Latis include enhanced scope 3 greenhouse gas reporting capabilities, as well as a significant expansion of vendor-specific data and sustainability claims on packaging.”
According to a recent study by IBM, data and AI play a major role in helping companies achieve their sustainability goals. Notably, a whopping 66% of companies said they are currently implementing or planning to adopt AI to achieve their sustainability goals. They are looking to AI to help them make their operations more efficient (37%), provide verifiable environmental performance data (33%) and automate their data collection and reporting efforts (29%).
