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Adam Thompson, head of sustainability at Pip & Nut, spends most of his time on the numbers behind the UK\u2019s biggest nut butter brand. Increasingly, though, he\u2019s also the person explaining the maths behind its climate targets and why rapid growth makes a fixed net zero deadline harder to hit than it looks on paper.<\/p>\n
Pip & Nut, which sells a variety of natural nut butters and healthy snacks, has built its reputation as the ethically minded challenger of the peanut butter aisle: B Corp certified, palm oil-free, built from founder Pip Murray\u2019s market-stall beginnings into a genuine category leader.<\/p>\n
It has also been unusually open about the fact that its current trajectory doesn\u2019t yet get it to the net zero target it signed up to.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a net zero roadmap. It doesn\u2019t get us to our net zero ambition, but that isn\u2019t stopping us trying really hard,\u201d Thompson says.<\/p>\n
The maths behind the pledge<\/h2>\n
Pip & Nut registered a science-based net zero target with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in 2023, aiming for 2040.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve signed up to our net zero goals via SBTI, the science based targets,\u201d Thompson explains, \u201cand I think the ultimate overview of it is it\u2019s going to be very hard for us to meet our net zero ambitions. We\u2019re very open about that. Our impact report talks about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reason, he says, comes down to how the target is calculated. \u201cYour net zero target is calculated based on your baseline year, which for us is 2021. Between 2021 and now, we\u2019ve probably doubled as a business, even more maybe. And by the time we get to 2040, we think we might have multiplied by a factor of four from our baseline year.\u201d<\/p>\n
He puts baseline emissions at 5,265 tCO2e, rising to an estimated 23,000 tonnes by 2040 on current growth.<\/p>\n
Because SBTi requires close to a 90 per cent absolute cut from that baseline, he argues the target effectively demands more of a growing business than a static one: \u201cThe size of our business would be a quarter of where we might be in 2040.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, as a business we need to go much further than sort of normal net zero requirements, just because we\u2019re growing so fast. The mechanism itself is challenging for fast growing businesses. Whereas if you were just a stable business that basically didn\u2019t grow much at all, it\u2019s much more simple.\u201d<\/p>\n Thompson is equally frank about how much of the target sits outside the company\u2019s control. \u201cNet zero also relies significantly on macro factors that we can\u2019t influence, decarbonisation of the national grid, for example, and the sustainability of the container shipping and container freight industry.<\/p>\n \u201cOur almonds come from California, our peanuts come from South America. A small business like us is not going to have any impact on the development of green technologies and sustainable fuels in sea shipping.\u201d<\/p>\n As a result, he says, \u201cthere\u2019s elements that you always know that you will not be able to cut out, which is why the residual emissions on net zero continue to be offset, but at the moment we do not have that complete line of sight to meet our 2040 ambitions.\u201d<\/p>\n On where the footprint actually sits: \u201c48 per cent of our footprint is in ingredients, and the lion\u2019s share of that emissions are from our peanuts and our almonds.\u201d<\/p>\n Because Pip & Nut owns no manufacturing of its own, he adds 99.9 per cent of<\/span>\u00a0the category covering a company\u2019s wider supply chain rather than its direct operations.<\/p>\n The response, Thompson says, has been to concentrate effort where the impact is greatest. \u201cWe joined a coalition in California called the Almond Project\u2026 about us working with a group of organisations, farmers, processors, other brands to understand how to make Californian almond growing more resilient via regenerative agriculture.\u201d<\/p>\n A second scheme, in Argentina, runs through the SAI Platform \u201calongside a group of major organisations such as Mars and Ferrero,\u201d which he says \u201chas the ability to remove 50 per cent of the emissions from peanut growing in Argentina.\u201d Progress so far: \u201clast year we sourced 25 per cent of our almonds from regenerative sources. It is our ambition that by 2029 that number will be 100 per cent,\u201d and \u201cwe should have about roughly 50 per cent of our peanut source this year from farms operating regenerative practices,\u201d with the same 100 per cent target by 2029.<\/p>\n He\u2019s candid that the term itself is loosely defined: \u201cregenerative agriculture doesn\u2019t have a specific definition, right? There\u2019s nothing written down to say this is regen ag. It has general principles.\u201d<\/p>\n Alongside this sits the company\u2019s B Corp status, recertified this year. \u201cOur B Corp certification on the new standards has been approved, and we are now certified on the new standards as of two weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n He explains why the new framework matters more than the old one: \u201cThe new standards have created minimum requirements across the board for all different sizes of organisations. So it is no longer a case where you could possibly cherry pick and be good in some areas and not so good in others to be a B Corp.\u201d For Pip & Nut, he says, \u201cit is that proof, it is that certification that you are making decisions for people and planet, and not just for profit.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s just as willing to admit where the company has missed its own goals. Of seven targets set out in its 2024 impact plan, \u201cwe only managed to do six of them.\u201d<\/p>\n This transparency, he says, it to make sure the brand doesn\u2019t fall into the trap of what he calls \u201cgreen hushing\u201d \u2013 FMCGs and retailers going quiet on sustainability rather than risk exposing gaps in performance.<\/p>\n \u201cGreen hushing is almost not saying anything about sustainability, not even leaning into some of the positive messaging because it might expose some of the negative messaging, but we want to lean into all of this,\u201d he says. \u201cIt is more important to us to be really authentic and open about how we are communicating from a sustainability point of view than almost not communicating anything at all.\u201d<\/p>\n His summary of the approach is blunt: \u201cSustainability is a journey. You never complete sustainability, and it\u2019s a journey you need to be really open and honest about the challenges as well as your successes.\u201d<\/p>\n Regulation is sharpening that instinct. The EU\u2019s Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition directive \u2013 which bans unsubstantiated terms including \u201ccarbon neutral\u201d and applies from 27 September 2026 \u2013 has already changed what\u2019s on Pip & Nut\u2019s packaging.<\/p>\n \u201cWe used to have \u2018our nuts are from sustainable farms\u2019 on our packaging, which we\u2019ve removed recently because we haven\u2019t got the full sort of due diligence,\u201d Thompson says. \u201cThese claims need to be certified. So what we\u2019re working on now with our regenerative agriculture projects is having regenerative nuts and having certified regenerative nuts.\u201d<\/p>\n On geopolitical risk, Thompson is matter-of-fact: \u201cWe don\u2019t source anything from that specific area, like Israel itself. We do have date syrup in our products, which is obviously a byproduct.\u201d<\/p>\n The wider point, he says, is about building resilience against shocks a small business can\u2019t predict, from \u201cSuper El Nino,\u201d which \u201cmeant there was a very wet harvest period for peanuts in Argentina,\u201d to \u201ca tariff battle between the US and Europe on almonds\u201d that didn\u2019t materialise but could have disrupted a market where \u201c80 per cent of the world\u2019s almonds come from California\u2026 a chunk of them then come from Spain, and then Australia\u2019s about 10 per cent\u201d.<\/p>\n His conclusion: \u201cAll of these different kind of things where your business are a complete kind of like third party in whatever political tensions might be going on, but you might get sort of like dragged along with it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Pip & Nut has built in some flexibility, working with \u201cfour different peanut suppliers in Argentina,\u201d though Thompson doesn\u2019t oversell the company\u2019s control over events: \u201cSome of it is always going to be a little bit reactive. You can\u2019t foresee everything.\u201d<\/p>\n On pricing, he says the company has held firm this year: \u201cFrom the beginning of this year, we haven\u2019t passed on any costs to our customers or consumers. We did last year a small increase, which was our first increase for\u2026 three years before that.\u201d He\u2019s candid about the pressure building underneath that decision, with \u201calmonds at their highest level for 10 years\u201d and \u201cnot necessarily sustainable\u201d pricing: \u201cUnless there is a shift in almond pricing, you could easily see products containing almonds start to contribute to food inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n On manufacturing, he confirms a consolidation: \u201cAll of our products are made in the UK\u201d,\u00a0 peanut butter production having \u201cmoved to be manufactured in the UK in 2024\u201d from the Netherlands, though he wouldn\u2019t name the supplier, \u201cbecause it\u2019d be very obvious who our supplier are\u201d in what he describes as \u201cquite a small industry.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking ahead, Thompson\u2019s next stated priority is full traceability and packaging. \u201cOne of our biggest ambitions in the next couple of years is to gain complete supply chain traceability for all of our raw materials and packaging,\u201d he says, citing cocoa sourced through Tony\u2019s Open Chain, which \u201cguarantees that our cocoa is deforestation free and paying a living wage to the farmers in West Africa\u201d as the model he wants to extend to oats, Turkish hazelnuts and Middle Eastern rice syrup.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s on our plan that by 2029, all of our snacking packaging will be fully recyclable,\u201d though he admits \u201cwe don\u2019t do a huge amount at the moment on sustainable packaging\u201d while the bigger nut-sourcing projects take priority. \u201cSustainability is a journey,\u201d he adds. \u201cYou\u2019re never going to complete it.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ab4a723b-13ff-4414-9015-fbb012e23251-300x200.jpg\")
Regenerative sourcing, B Corp, and choosing honesty over buzzwords<\/h2>\n
![\"Adam](\"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/argentina-peanuts-project-en-2-905x473-1-300x157.jpg\")
Supply chain resilience where costs are building<\/h2>\n