Taking care also for future generations

Our long-term success is tied to sustainable growth. We are raising our CO₂ reduction targets across our entire value chain and switching to a net-zero path.

In keeping with our more than 100-year heritage, our passion is the mindful manufacture of dairy products in a way that takes our planet’s natural resources and the needs of people and communities where we operate into account.

We believe that the key to this is a responsible business model geared to sustainable growth, which will enable us to generate added value over the long term – particularly in rural regions – and ensure that future generations also get to experience the unique nature of dairy products.

Our approach

We will continue to focus on sustainable dairy, and close cooperation with our milk suppliers is an important aspect of this. It will help us secure long-term access to high-quality and increasingly sustainable milk, allowing us to respond to a growing consumer need.

We want to use our influence and our close ties with our farmers and milk suppliers to drive positive change in the complex dairy ecosystem in association with other companies, social groups and other stakeholders.

On the basis of fixed plans and partnerships, we focus our efforts in those areas where we can achieve the biggest impact: sustainable milk production, conservation of resources, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and employee development.

What have we achieved

We believe we are on track to achieve our ambition of switching to sustainably produced milk. In Switzerland, 93 % of the milk we process is now produced according to the swissmilk green standard. There is still more to do, however, and we are working with our milk producers to close the gap by 2023. At the same time, we are committed to helping the industry further develop and extend the current standard, particularly with regard to climate protection.

We are satisfied with our efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions throughout the Group and are optimistic about achieving our goal of a 25 % reduction compared with the base year 2014 in the year under review.

We are not satisfied with our waste reduction results, however. Although we were able to reduce our food waste by more than 10 %, we are still falling short of our expectations overall. The discovery that the sludge generated by wastewater treatment at our site in Tunisia could not be recycled as planned, meaning that we need to adopt a new approach, had a hugely negative impact on this.

We also still have to step up as regards development plans for our employees across all business units and countries. The glass is currently two-thirds full, and further action is required.

Looking ahead

The pandemic has sharpened our awareness of our planet’s health. We are placing such a heavy burden on our earth, however, that both its climate and its people are suffering as a result. As such, we believe we have a shared responsibility to contribute towards overcoming these challenges.

We have set ambitious new targets for our focus areas. We are expanding our commitment to sustainable milk to include our international business, and working with our milk suppliers and partners to bring about systemic change within the industry.

We have now also set specific reduction targets for water consumption and are stepping up our commitment to more environmentally friendly packaging and the circular economy.

Other key developments include the switch to science-based, independently validated CO₂ reduction targets under the Science Based Targets initiative and the extension of our obligations to cover our entire value chain.

Ultimately, however, we are well aware that we will only achieve our targets by working closely with our employees, farmers and milk suppliers and also engaging our consumers and partners.