Beyond Meat wins climate solution status for Beyond Burger and Beyond Steak in industry first

Beyond Meat has become the first company to have plant-based meat products qualify as climate solutions under the Climate Solution Framework, with its Beyond Burger and Beyond Steak recognized for producing significantly lower emissions than comparable beef products.

• Beyond Burger and Beyond Steak became the first plant-based meat products to qualify as climate solutions under criteria developed by the Exponential Roadmap Initiative in collaboration with Oxford Net Zero.
• The qualification applied only to the US versions of the products and remained valid through February 2027 based on emissions data compared with comparable beef products.
• Beyond Meat said a 2025 third-party reviewed life cycle assessment found a two-pack of Beyond Burger generated 88% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than an industry-average US beef patty.

The qualification was based on criteria and safeguards set out in the Climate Solution Framework, developed by the Exponential Roadmap Initiative, or ERI, with Oxford Net Zero. Under that framework, a climate solution is defined as a product or service that contributes to reducing emissions globally by producing at least 50% fewer emissions than the weighted average of current market alternatives.

For Beyond Meat, the recognition marked a fresh validation of a message it has pushed since launch: that replacing animal protein with plant-based alternatives can deliver environmental gains at scale. The company said the designation covered the US versions of Beyond Burger IV and Beyond Steak and was valid through February 2027.

“We believe in the power of plants to fuel our bodies and to heal the planet. We are dedicated to building a more sustainable, more humane food system, and I am thrilled that ERI has recognized Beyond Burger and Beyond Steak for their role in tackling the climate crisis, which has been part of our mission since day one. Beyond Burger and Beyond Steak deliver tasty, clean plant protein, while offering a climate solution at every bite,” said Ethan Brown, Founder & CEO of Beyond Meat.

The company said the qualification applied on the basis that greenhouse gas emissions from one 4 oz uncooked Beyond Burger patty delivered to retail and foodservice distribution outlets, and from 88 g of cooked Beyond Steak, were at least 50% lower than the market-weighted average emissions from comparable beef products.

ERI described the designation as part of a broader effort to distinguish products and services that can help accelerate progress toward a net zero economy. The organization, which works with companies to cut emissions and scale climate solutions by 2030, said that expanding lower-emission market alternatives mattered just as much as reducing emissions from existing systems. ERI is also an accredited partner of the United Nations’ High Level Climate Champion’s Race to Zero.

“We are thrilled to recognize pioneering products such as Beyond Burger and Beyond Steak that support the global transition toward a net zero economy. We created the climate solutions framework to highlight climate solutions, such as these Beyond Meat products, to remind companies that exponential growth of such qualifying products and services is just as important as decarbonization of higher emitting market alternatives,” said Johan Falk, CEO and co-founder of the Exponential Roadmap Initiative.

The announcement also gave Beyond Meat another environmental claim to add to a growing list of sustainability-focused certifications and assessments. The company pointed to a 2025 third-party reviewed life cycle assessment of Beyond Burger, which estimated that, compared with an industry-average US beef patty, a two-pack of Beyond Burger required 97% less land use, 92% less water consumption, generated 88% fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and used 28% less non-renewable energy.

Those figures were central to the company’s long-running case that plant-based meat should be judged not only on taste, nutrition, and price, but also on resource use and emissions intensity. The climate solution qualification effectively placed that argument inside a recognized external framework, rather than leaving it as a company sustainability claim.

The recognition was limited in scope. It applied only to the company’s US products, and only for a fixed period ending in February 2027. Still, it gave Beyond Meat a notable first in a plant-based category that has spent recent years trying to sharpen its case with consumers, retailers, and foodservice buyers amid tougher commercial conditions.

Beyond Meat also used the announcement to reinforce a wider corporate narrative around transparency and accountability. Alongside the climate solution designation, it said it remained the first company in the plant-based meat category to achieve Clean Label Project Certification, presenting both milestones as evidence of continued efforts to set standards around product claims and environmental performance.

For a company that built its brand on the idea that meat made from plants could reduce the burden of conventional livestock production, the ERI qualification offered a fresh benchmark. Rather than focusing on broad category-level comparisons, it tied recognition to specific products and measurable emissions thresholds against prevailing market options.

That mattered because the Climate Solution Framework did not simply reward lower-carbon products in general terms. To qualify, a product had to show emissions reductions significant enough to align with the wider 1.5°C ambition and to support the transition toward net zero when higher-emitting options were replaced.

In that respect, the announcement was less about a new product launch than about how existing products were being classified. Beyond Burger and Beyond Steak were presented not just as alternatives to beef, but as products that met an independently developed threshold for climate relevance in the markets where they were assessed.