Our World: Environment & Society
For future generations
Uniting to protect our planet.
We are actively committed to doing what we can to protect the climate. By using natural resources responsibly, we seek to preserve them for future generations. We work every day to achieve this by reducing CO₂ emissions, plastic, and food waste, using more sustainable raw materials, and creating deforestation-free supply chains, in order not only to preserve our living conditions, but to restore them if possible.
Olive tree at our plant in Turkey – we plant one tree per employee here on the plant premises.
Regenerative business
Regenerative business means not only preserving the world permanently for people and animals, but even improving their livelihoods again.
Dr. Oetker is currently working on a project to promote various forms of regenerative agriculture and source raw materials from regenerative agriculture. In its initial phase, the project focuses on the raw materials wheat and cereals, and sugar (beets). Related pilot projects are to be launched in 2023.
Climate neutral - the first step on the way to climate positive
We are reducing our carbon footprint and have been climate neutral at our international locations since 2022. But we are aiming higher: We want to reduce the total carbon footprint by 35 percent by 2030 and plan to be climate neutral in all our indirect operations by 2050.
Generating renewable energy: solar panels at our plant in South Africa.
Less offsetting.
Since 2022, all our international locations have been climate neutral. But this is just the beginning. Building on this achievement, we are working on using less energy and generating or purchasing renewable energy so we can offset less unavoidable emissions as possible.
We are supporting a project in which 20 wind turbines supply the Turkish grid with clean energy because wind energy is especially efficient in terms of land use and is emission free. This is a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels like coal and natural gas – plus, it's creating jobs and contributing technology and know-how to the Turkish economy.
Less waste, less plastic
By 2025, all our packaging should be recyclable. We will also be avoiding plastic wherever it makes sense and is possible. In the future, the aim is to reprocess each piece of packaging so that its raw materials remain in circulation - and, ultimately, can be recycled to the same high standard.
Our colleagues in packaging design are improving the recyclability of our products.
Improved recycling
More paper, less plastic – preferably recyclable. That is our basic principle when it comes to recycling, which we also promote in various cross-functional initiatives.
Leading by example.
Minimal packaging, minimal plastic, maximum recyclability - these are the improvements we have made. And we’re not stopping there.
I'm now recyclable!
In the UK, our popular four-compartment cups for our decor products are no longer made of polystyrene, i.e. PS, but of polypropylene, i.e. PP, and are therefore recyclable, now. Besides, we have significantly reduced the packaging's weight. Soon those cups will also be available in many other countries.
Desserts without additional lid
As of 2022, we are eliminating the snap-on lid from our Löffelglück cream pudding, Löffelglück semolina pudding, Löffelglück fruit jelly, and our High Protein Pudding in both 500g and 400g cups. This saves at least 115 tons (or 40 truckloads) of plastic per year in the German market alone.
Food does not belong in the trash.
We are committed to ensuring that as little food as possible is thrown away. To achieve this, we are constantly improving our use of raw materials and our collaboration with suppliers and retailers. We also review our product concepts.
A quarter less: That’s how much food waste we will be reducing at our production sites and warehouses worldwide by 2025. We’re measuring raw material losses in all our international plants with pinpoint accuracy and are using the results to develop measures to improve across all our locations. This approach of harmonization and exchange will allow us to achieve our target in our pizza plants as early as 2022. We’re continuing to set ourselves new, ambitious goals as we move forward.
Responsibility - along the entirety of our supply chain
Whether it’s sugar or salt, meat or vegetables, cocoa, or vanilla: raw materials are at the heart of our products – and their purchase is part of our social and environmental responsibility.
We are committed to protecting ecosystems, animal habitats, and counteracting the global destruction of forests. Consequently, we want to establish deforestation-free supply chains by 2025 and ensure no forested areas are destroyed to cultivate our raw materials. This applies to the procurement of paper, soy, sugar, palm oil, and cocoa, to name a few. The following raw materials are among those certified along our supply chains:
Since 2012, we have been a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and follow their criteria for the sustainable cultivation of palm oil. To counteract the global destruction of forested areas, we intend to only use palm oil in our products that have been “Segregated” to the RSPO standard. However, as some existing contracts with suppliers must first expire, we grant newly acquired companies a three-year transition period to convert to the “Mass Balance” standard and five years to convert to the “Segregated” standard. Check our progress at www.rspo.org (membership number: 4-1035-18-000-00).
In recent years, we have already intensively dealt with human rights and environmental due diligence obligations in the supply chain. We therefore already buy raw materials that are critical in this respect, such as cocoa or palm oil, almost exclusively certified. From 2023, we will also implement the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act and monitor risks for human rights violations and environmental violations even more systematically and regularly. Where risks exist, we will implement appropriate preventive and remedial measures and report annually on the process. Furthermore, as a first step, our Supplier Code of Conduct was updated and republished.
For the welfare of animals and environment
We plan to extend the range of vegetarian and vegan products we offer – also in our classic assortments. Simultaneously, we are working to ensure that livestock farming, trapping, slaughtering, and transporting our animal products are as gentle as possible.
For example, we only purchase certified tuna and are defining higher standards for our chicken meat – so step by step, we are making improvements.
We work with various initiatives to improve animal welfare and environmental standards:
Since 2016, a portion of our sourced chicken has met the criteria of the European Chicken Commitment. This means slower rearing, improved air quality, more daylight, and more space for the animals.
Since January 2022, we have only been using chicken meat according to EMI criteria for the production of Ristorante Pollo in our plants in Germany and Poland. Unfortunately, from January to June 2023 we will only be getting conventional chicken meat here. From July 2023, however, the chicken meat that we use as standard and that meets the EMI criteria will be used again.
Our Ristorante Pollo is sold in the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, Spain, Finland, Portugal, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Lithuania, the United Kingdom and Canada.
As of 2025, we will exclusively be using this chicken on our pizzas worldwide.