Carbon credits for avoided food waste are now on the market

If a company wants to reduce its carbon footprint, it may buy carbon credits issued by Verra, the world’s largest carbon crediting program. Those credits could be for projects like renewable energy or forest restoration, letting a company claim the environmental benefits from a newly built wind farm or trees planted on once-cleared land. Now there’s a new option: carbon credits for rescued food, which help fund organizations that collect would-be food waste and distribute it to people in need. Those Verra-issued credits are now available thanks to Brightly, a Boston-based startup founded in 2023 by Andy Levitt, who previously founded and led Purple Carrot, a plant-based meal kit company. Brightly already has contracts with 25-plus food rescue organizations, including Feeding America. But now its food waste carbon credits are being issued by Verra, making them the first of their kind under the carbon standard’s methodology for reducing food loss and waste. Carbon credits come with some controversy. Research has found that some projects haven’t delivered real climate benefits; experts say the option of credits can enable greenwashing. Levitt knows there’s distrust in the carbon mark…