New Seasons Market, Tillamook Partner on Sustainability Projects
New Seasons Market and the Tillamook County Creamery Association are expanding their collaborative efforts around sustainability.
The two Oregon-based companies, both of which are Certified B Corporations, are working together on a long-term manure management program with TCCA’s local dairy farms, with the help of a $4 million federal grant that TCCA secured.
As part of the partnership, TCCA will provide verified methane emission reductions for its products that are offered at New Seasons Market locations, likely beginning in 2026, Jocelyn Bridson, director, environment and community impact, TCCA, told SFA News Daily. She said the products would probably not have on-package claims but could instead have supporting information online and in stores.
The five-year USDA Regional Conservation Partnership Program grant will help TCCA’s dairy farmers reduce their methane emissions through such practices as using manure tank covers with flare off systems, manure separators, and composting. These systems work to reduce anaerobic decomposition of manure, which leads to methane emissions, Bridson explained.
New Seasons Market will contribute some funding for emission-reduction activities related to manure management, likely starting in 2026 once projects are underway, she said.
In addition to reducing methane emissions, the initiative also aims to help keep the waterways around TCCA member farms clean.
New Seasons and TCCA have also been partnering to fund a project that is planting five acres of native plants along farms in Tillamook, Oregon. Earlier this year, employee volunteers from both companies planted riparian trees—trees that grow on riverbanks—together as part of this initiative, adding native, woody plants on TCCA-member dairy farms.
Planting trees helps sequester carbon in the plant tissue, Bridson explained. It also protects water quality, provides shade for waterways—which benefits spawning salmon—and creates habitat for birds, invertebrates, and other animals.
New Seasons and TCCA each contributed $15,000 toward the effort, she said. They also received $15,000 from a USDA Conservation Innovation Grant associated with Zero Foodprint and Mad Agriculture, which promotes regenerative farming practices.
“We’re benefitting habitat, protecting water quality, and helping sequester carbon all at the same time,” Bridson said in a video from the planting project.
The riparian tree planting will take as much carbon out of the atmosphere as not burning 37,000 gallons of gas, the video explains.
Athena Petty (pictured above), senior manager of sustainability at New Seasons Market, said the retailer seeks to partner with its suppliers to maximize their potential impact.
“We’ve been developing these partnerships and these collaborations with other folks in our local supply chain because where we can come together, and bring money together, and help farmers, we are able to make a larger impact at scale,” she said in the video.
New Seasons Market is also involved in multiple environmental-facing policy networks in Oregon, including the Oregon Organic Coalition, the Oregon Business Alliance for Climate, and the Association of Oregon Recyclers.