Sweeter Swaps: How To Choose Sustainable Sweeteners

With so many sweeteners vying for the “healthy and sustainable” label, it can be tricky to know which claims to trust and which to traipse right by in the supermarket. We’re doing a deep dive into the environmental impact of two key clean sweeteners — honey and maple syrup — to help you to shop more sustainably.

- Kate Geagan

Let me get this out at the start: I am an unabashed lover of holiday sweets and treats.

I adore the smell of baked goods wafting through the house. I relish punching down pillows of dough, then creating something sublime with it. Nothing feels more nostalgic than pulling out my mom’s crinkly, butter-smudged index cards. And that once-a-year cookie-making binge? Pure heaven… and priceless to me.

Yet, over the years, I’ve made some swaps when it comes to the sweet stuff, tinkering with the types (somewhat healthier) and total amount (less is more) of the sweeteners we use. So if you’re like me, on the hunt for CE-approved holiday ingredients that don’t scrimp on sweet flavor and are still matched to meet the task at hand (sugar helps provide structure, color and flavor to baked goods and also acts as a preservative), it’s becoming easier than ever to find more sustainable versions, thanks to a booming interest. Here are two to try this season.

Local Honey

Honey, especially small-batch and locally produced, is the bees knees: A UC Davis study found that honey from “backyard” beekeepers, producers with fewer than 10 colonies and an output of 100 kilograms of honey annually, has the smallest carbon footprint. Larger commercial producers have a higher emission due to the transport as well as the processing. Reduce your footprint further by choosing raw and unprocessed local honey.