Proactive for climate protection: as a family business with a history stretching back over 100 years, we are committed to sustainability. It is this that drives us on to work every day to conserve resources and to make a contribution to combatting climate change.
This has seen us reducing our emissions, cutting water consumption, saving energy in our factories and optimising our packaging wherever possible. Small but continual changes are taking us ever closer to our goals each day, with strict guidelines determining how we go about our work, and our teams in the production, engineering, development and sustainability management departments at our sites ensuring continuous further development – for standing still is, namely, an alien concept for us.
We want to reduce our CO2 emissions as much as possible. That’s why we are working on scaling up resource-efficient processes and investing in technologies such as photovoltaics, heat recovery and e-mobility.
Our science-based climate targets
2021 saw us giving a commitment within the scope of the international Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to speedily implement emissions reduction targets across the company in line with climate science. We validated these targets in 2023. Following an exhaustive review, they were confirmed by the SBTi and are therefore in conformity with the Paris Climate Accords as science-based climate targets.
What is the SBTi?
The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is a joint initiative of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the United Nations Global Compact, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). It specifies methods and criteria for science-based CO2 reduction targets and validates corporate targets. It also requires participating companies to include all their emissions (scopes 1, 2 and 3).
CO2 and energy optimisation: getting better and better
We are working on a wide variety of measures and projects to achieve our climate targets. Along our supply chain (scope 3), the greatest potential for reducing CO2 lies in the area of raw materials. With this very much in mind and working together with our suppliers, we therefore promote climate-friendly cultivation, regenerative agriculture and the protection of the rain forests. In addition, we are increasingly working as a family business on highly enjoyable, plant-based recipes.
We save energy in our factories (scopes 1 and 2) thanks to a variety of measures we have implemented, thereby reducing our CO2 emissions. Among other measures, we have opted for combined heat and power stations and photovoltaic arrays, which generate energy sustainably for our own use, for LED lights for hall lighting and for energy-saving ovens with heat recovery.
Greenhouse gas emission in tonnes of CO2 equivalent in kt CO2 eq
| 2020 | 2022 | 2023 | |
| Scope 1 | 22.572 | 18.958 | 19.507 |
| Scope 2 | 9.220 | 483 | 399 |
| Scope 3 Upstream Scope 3 emissions Downstream Scope 3 emissions | 653.702 612.441 41.261 | 537.266 497.534 39.732 | 544.957 503.753 41.204 |
More sustainable packaging: conserving resources
Optimising our product packaging is an important factor in our sustainability strategy. We regularly review where we can use more sustainable materials or ensure better recyclability. We have reached the first goals but we are continuing to work every day on making our packaging more sustainable. Our transport boxes, for example, are mainly made from recycled paper, while we use virgin fiber material for direct product contact. For our paper packaging materials, we mainly use material that comes from FSC®-certified forests, recycled materials and other controlled sources (FSC® N003066).
What is behind FSC®?
FSC® or Forest Stewardship Council combines forest management with sustainable responsibility and transfers this objective to minimum standards. The FSC® seal evidences adherence to rules preserving biodiversity, protecting water resources and soils, and regulating workers’ and land use rights.
Less packaging is more
Our guiding principle is: As little packaging as possible, as much as necessary. And the rationale behind this is that packaging fulfils an important purpose: it protects our products so that they arrive at your home in the same condition as they left our production facilities. There is no simple solution which is the answer for all products. For each product we have instead to find the type of packaging which best combines protecting the product and sustainability aspects.
In the case of the Griesson Soft Cake, one of our best-known products, we do not use sorting inserts, for example, but now only pack the little cake in a tubular bag inside a collapsible box. Where it is not yet possible to do completely without plastic inserts, we use transparent instead of brown plastic, as this is ideal for recycling.
This is what we have already achieved
- 17% less plastic in branded packaging
- 46% less plastic for the Prinzen Rolle Minis since we switched to a new outer packaging made of paper
- 99 % recyclable packaging material
Food Waste? Not with us
We are taking a stand against food waste:
- Our De Beukelaer factory outlets are active on the ‘Too Good To Go’ platform. This app allows consumers to buy food which is close to its expiry date or has a high proportion of product breakage at a significantly reduced price. And this means that not only are users doing something good for the environment but for their pockets too.
- For a long time we have been regularly supporting food banks in the regions around our sites with sweet and savoury products.
