Girl Scout Cookie Sustainability
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Scouts in little green vests are posted up outside grocery stores everywhere, and that pile of Tagalong boxes (untempered chocolate, sickly sweet peanut butter and all) is calling your name. Before you know it you’re drooling, your wallet is empty and your hands are full of those iconic cardboard boxes.
We all know Girl Scout cookies are delicious, but are they sustainable? In this post, I’ll give you the DL on Girl Scout cookie sustainability.
Palm Oil in Girl scout cookies
Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA) has been hit before for using palm oil in their cookies. If you're not familiar, palm oil is super bad because it's associated with massive deforestation and habitat destruction (especially orangutan habitats).
The GSUSA palm oil saga started in 2011 when Rhiannon Tomtishen and Madison Vorva, two fierce young Scouts, learned about all the “yikes” that accompany palm oil. The girls quickly started pressuring GSUSA to ditch the palm oil. Amazingly, GSUSA listened to the scouts and became members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). This organization certifies palm oil operations as sustainable and works with these operations to ensure they meet social, environmental and economic standards.
This all sounds dandy, but some have criticized RSPO for having more bark than bite. In my opinion, it's good that GSUSA became a member of RSPO, but the issue isn't over yet and there is still a lot of improvement to be made in the palm oil industry as a whole.
Bottom line: GS cookies have made progress in sourcing sustainable palm oil, but the sitch still isn’t perfect.
Cocoa in Girl scout cookies
Cocoa is another tricky ingredient in Girl Scout cookies. Like I've talked about before, the cocoa industry is associated with some pretty thorny human rights issues. Although GSUSA says their bakers are "actively working" to source conflict-free cocoa, they don't have any fair trade labels or other certifications to back this up.
Certifications aren't the end-all-be-all of sustainability, but they help consumers know more specifics about companies' practices and sourcing. Without a sustainable certification, we just can’t know for sure how sustainable the GS cookie cocoa is. I'd like to believe that GSUSA is really working to make their cocoa sustainable, but at this point it’s not clear.
Bottom line: GSUSA says they’re trying to source sustainable cocoa, but they don’t have certification to back it up.
Vegan Girl Scout Cookies
Thin Mints, S’mores (only the chocolate-y covered ones), Peanut Butter Patties (but NOT Taglaongs!), Lemonades, and Thanks-a-lots are all vegan! Rejoice! Vegan food is generally more sustainable than non-vegan food because it doesn't support animal industries (especially the dairy industry) that are associated with massive emissions and landscape degradation.
Bottom line: Vegan cookies > non-vegan cookies
Girl Scout cookie Packaging
Most Girl Scout cookies are sold in the classic primary colored cardboard boxes. These boxes are easily recyclable, so that’s great. However, most cookies are also wrapped with either two filmy plastic bags or two filmy plastic bags AND two plastic containers. The filmy plastic bags are not recyclable unless you have a specific film plastic recycling service, which is a bummer. The other plastic containers are recyclable if you give them a quick rinse, but any plastic is bad plastic in my book.
Although it’s good that most of the Girl Scout cookie packaging is recyclable, it’s fair to say that GSUSA could do better. The cookies wrapped in cardboard, plastic film and plastic containers obviously go mega overboard with the packaging.
Other Girl Scout cookies are simply sold in lightweight plastic resealable bags, but this varies regionally. Although these resealable bags are lightweight and create minimal waste, they still uses plastic, which is just terrible for the environment. Either way, GSUSA still has a long way to go in the sustainable packaging department.