Bread Alone Bakery Goes Carbon Neutral
Bread Alone bakery opened its first location in the Catskills in 1983, and has since been dedicated to sustainability and leaving a smaller carbon footprint on the planet.
In 1983, Daniel Leader, the founder of Bread Alone, moved from NYC to the Catskills to bake organic breads and bring his craft to a local community. Since then, the purpose of Bread Alone bakery, according to the Bread Alone website, is to serve honest food, create prosperity for their people and minimize further harm to the planet. With the creation of the Boiceville 38 location, the owners and operators of the bakery are achieving just that.
Boiceville has been the home of Bread Alone bakery since its founding almost forty years ago. The new Boiceville bakery will be carbon neutral and 100% run on renewable energy. The power will come only from the sun and scrap wood. As far as the owners are aware, they will be the first commercial bakery in the United States to operate without fossil fuels.
The baking at Bread Alone will be done using Heuft ovens that run on electricity and scrap wood for the wood-fired ovens that they also use. The Boiceville bakery will bake for the other Hudson Valley cafes, Rhinebeck, Kingston and Woodstock.
Aside from this new carbon neutral location, Bread Alone has been focused on sustainability at their Hudson Valley stores for years. According to Bread Alone’s website, Bread Alone is a partner with Toast Ale USA to help minimize food waste in the United States. Toast Ale US, which is based in the Bronx, takes the leftover bread that the bakery produces and turns it into beer.
Bread Alone also composts the food waste in the bakery and cafes with onsite composting. All of the leftover bread that is not sold is either composted, donated to local soup kitchens, or given to farmers for animal feed.
In the fall season, Bread Alone uses its unsold bread to create dried bread mix that Hudson Valley residents can use to make stuffing for Thanksgiving.
Customers and fans of Bread Alone bakery are excited for this new change with a carbon neutral location. The customers are happy to see the bakery continue to be environmentally conscious.
“I love the food at Bread Alone in Rhinebeck, it’s a short ride up from Mairst and the employees are always so nice. I love the Spicy Green Egg Sandwich. But I really love Bread Alone because of their sustainability efforts. It feels good knowing that when I buy food from them, I know that the money is going towards the environment.” said Emily Masi, a senior at Marist. Emily is looking forward to coming back to the Hudson Valley to see the new Bread Alone location in Boiceville.
Many other customers are also intrigued by the 100% carbon neutral location.
“I think it’s amazing that a local Hudson Valley bakery was able to take this idea of sustainability and having a carbon neutral location and actually make it happen,” said Camille Renaud, a Marist senior and also a frequent visitor of Bread Alone in Rhinebeck and Kingston.
“It’s so exciting that this bakery is able to open a 100% carbon neutral location and only generate power from the sun. It seems like it would be something that is out of reach, but it is definitely possible.” Camille’s go to breakfast sandwich at Bread Alone is the Breakfast BLT.
Many customers of Bread Alone believe that this carbon neutral location could inspire other bakeries in the area to do the same thing.
“My thought process is, if other bakeries hear about Bread Alone’s carbon neutral location in Boiceville, they may see that it is possible to do this and open their own carbon neutral location. Or at least incorporate more sustainable practices into their business models.” said Olivia Jennings, a Highland resident and customer at Bread Alone’s Kingston location.
Bread Alone has held a commitment to the people of the Hudson Valley and the planet since they opened their first location. The Boiceville 38 project is the biggest project that they have taken on since they opened, but they are only just getting started in their environmental efforts.
