America’s first CO₂ neutral eggs find the perfect pack

“The new MPS barns are more closely tuned to meeting hens’ needs than most commercial chicken houses in the U.S.”, says Sam Krouse, Vice President of Business Development at MPS. “While the Kipster model specifies barns with a slightly smaller footprint than a typical cage-free facility, they each have outdoor spaces, skylights and multiple garden areas so the hens can do what comes naturally”.

To reduce the eggs’ carbon footprint, the hens are fed a diet of repurposed bakery byproducts with additional nutrients, rather than conventional corn-based poultry feed. The chickens themselves are a white breed, which are much more efficient than the commonly used brown hens at turning feed into eggs.

Helping close the sustainability loop, the barns are powered by solar panels - and MPS has implemented a practice already used in its conventional and cage-free chicken houses: all the manure is gathered and dried with exhaust air from the barns to make an organic fertilizer with a much lower carbon footprint than the man-made nitrogen compounds.

Asked why they chose Hartmann’s Hybrid egg carton, Sam Krouse said, “Kipster is a unique egg with a lot to shout about. The Hybrid carton gives us the space to create a beautiful and informative carton design. It also has the advantage of being made from 100% recycled materials - a critical requirement of Kipster’s environmentally friendly brand and Kroger’s mission to create more sustainable food systems.”

The Hybrid carton is a next-generation pack for the specialty egg segment, and we at Hartmann are honored that it’s been chosen for this major new brand. It breaks from tradition by blending a beautiful paperboard top with a traditional moulded fibre bottom – and its recyclability, compostability, and biodegradability make it a great complement to this initiative.

The Hartmann Hybrid Packing is available for sale in North America only.  

Kroger collaborates with Kipster, a Dutch innovator that has revolutionized egg farming, in order to bring humane and sustainable farms to the U.S. The Kipster system in short:

• Uses the highest standards of animal welfare, providing a cage-free, natural-like wooded environment with plenty of variety, daylight, and outdoor foraging space
   
• Uses chicken feed made of surplus food from bakeries and other food producers, with lower climate impact than standard feed
  
  
• Minimizes fine particle emissions, resulting in better air quality for farmers and animals
  
  
• Powered by rooftop solar panels

“We achieve carbon neutrality by first reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions internally as much as possible. Any remaining emissions are then offset by supporting external carbon reduction projects,” says Kipster’s Managing Director for the U.S., Sandra Vijn.

About Kipster
Kipster is a progressive, award-winning Dutch egg farmer. In 2017, they introduced the world’s first carbon neutral egg to the Netherlands. They dream of a sustainable and healthy world in which all people and animals can share the planet and live with dignity. Kipster’s mission is to find ways to feed the world population in an honest way, with respect for all living things, and without passing the cost on to future generations.

Since launching, Kipster has remained committed to full transparency, opening its Dutch farm to visitors, and freely sharing information about its model to drive greater sustainability across animal protein production.