[1][2] In April 2013, Kevin Cleary was named CEO, Rich Boragno CFO, and co-owners Erickson and Kit Crawford became co-chief visionary officers.

A baker and former mountain guide,[4] Erickson got the idea for his product in 1990 on a day-long, 175-mile bike ride, for which he packed Powerbars, the only energy bars on the market at that time.

[citation needed] In Clif Bar's first year, its revenues exceeded $700,000, fueled primarily by strong sales in bike shops and the growth of the health and natural foods movement.

It switched to organic ingredients and eliminated shrink-wrap, saving 90,000 pounds of plastic and $400,000 annually, and invested in wind energy to offset fossil fuel usage.

[22] To help reduce fuel consumption, Clif Bar began giving employees $6,500 in 2007 to switch to bio-diesel or high-mileage hybrid cars.

[6] As a bio-diesel incentive program, "Cool Commute" was the first of its type nationwide and drew praise from Al Gore for helping to aid the fight against global warming.

[26] In October 2015, Clif Bar along with other members BICEP released a joint letter pledging to accelerate business action on climate change and urging governments to do the same.

[28] On March 5, 2012, the company announced that thenceforth "100 percent of cocoa ingredients for CLIF BAR will be sourced from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms.

The company reasoned that "[they] no longer feel good about benefitting from the amount of risk certain athletes are taking in areas of the sport where there is no margin for error; where there is no safety net".

[38] In 2018, the company introduced the “Re-Tern” program, in which pre-retiree Clif Bar employees can apply for an internship at the Community Department to be trained in non-profit operations.