Leading AgTech Company AppHarvest Reports Progress on Sustainability and Social Impact Goals to Feed the Future on Earth Day

AppHarvest Reinforces Mission to Redefine Agriculture with 2020 Sustainability Report Highlighting the Company’s Social Impact, Positive Environmental Change and Job Creation in Appalachia

MOREHEAD, Ky., April 21, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AgTech leader, AppHarvest (NASDAQ: APPH, APPHW), today published its 2020 Sustainability Report, “Feed the Future.” The report outlines the Certified B Corp and public benefit corporation’s efforts to create positive environmental change in agriculture, empower employees and improve the communities in which it operates.

“Resiliency is at the core of our beliefs at AppHarvest because farming as we’ve known it is broken and not sustainable for the planet,” said Jonathan Webb, AppHarvest Founder & CEO. “We’re solving for the variables that make our food system unreliable, such as extreme weather, droughts, fire or contamination. Our team built one of the world’s largest facilities in the midst of a global pandemic -- not a greenhouse covering a few acres -- but a controlled environment high-tech farm the size of 50 football fields that can produce about 45 million pounds of tomatoes annually. And we plan for 11 more facilities by the end of 2025.”

“In AppHarvest’s first sustainability report since becoming a publicly traded public benefit corporation--one of only a handful both traded on an exchange and B Corp certified--we explain how the company has been addressing some of the most pressing environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in agriculture, such as water and land shortages, soil depletion, pesticide use and the massive issue of food security,” said AppHarvest Chief Sustainability Officer Jackie Roberts.

This Earth Day, AppHarvest details progress toward three distinct impact goals as it works to establish a reliable, climate-resilient, domestic food supply:

Drive positive environmental change in agriculture: AppHarvest’s first high-tech indoor farm grows more with fewer resources and contributes to a climate-resilient, domestic food supply. Growing food in an indoor environment is highly resilient to a changing climate and can provide a buffer against extreme weather events, such as flooding, heat waves, droughts and freezing temperatures. With its strategic location in Central Appalachia, AppHarvest can reach 70% of the U.S. population within a day’s drive. The location reduces diesel used for transportation as much as 80% compared to produce trucked from Mexico or the Southwest of the U.S. AppHarvest’s operations are also designed to use 90% less water than open-field agriculture with 100% recycled rainwater, zero chemical pesticides and zero agricultural runoff.