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, packaging, 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 2024.
Protecting the climate step by step
We have joined the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and are thus committed to science-based climate targets and continuous reporting in accordance with the criteria of the globally recognised network. 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.
Science Based Targets initiative
SBTi is a joint initiative of the global non-profit organisation Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the UN Global Compact, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). It was launched in 2015 to help companies set emissions reduction targets in line with current climate science and the goals of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. We have joined the SBTi and are thus committed to science-based climate targets and continuous reporting in accordance with the criteria of the globally recognised network.
Generating renewable energy: solar panels at our plant in South Africa.
Baked by the sun - production without fossil fuels
Time to rethink: in future, we want to produce pizza, cakes and desserts without fossil fuels and therefore only with renewable energy - from the oven to the freezer, from filling to storage. Our pizzas should therefore be produced entirely using renewable energy by 2030. The conversion of the food plants will follow somewhat later. We already source all the electricity at our sites from renewable sources. In the future, we also want to completely eliminate the use of gas, among other things
Less waste, less packaging
By 2030, our packaging should be recyclable, reusable or compostable. We will also remove, reduce, and reuse packaging, while ensuring optimal product protection. This will be aligned with our CO₂ reduction roadmap among our SBTi commitment. 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 packaging – 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.
For our refinement products, such as crème fraîche, the slip lid is also eliminated from all 125g and 150g cups since 2023.
All made of cardboard
The packaging of our Happy Birthday candles from Dr. Oetker Germany is now made entirely of cardboard - and can be recycled via the wastepaper stream. This eliminates the viewing window made of non-recyclable plastic and the polystyrene block in which the candles were previously inserted.
Fully recyclable
Dr. Oetker Professional in India changed the packaging for Veg Mayonnaise For Coleslaw from non-recyclable film to recyclable mono-material. Doing this we estimate to be avoiding 30 tons of plastic waste going into end-of-life per year.
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.
Protecting forests and other ecosystems
Deforestation for agricultural land is a global problem. Forests are not only gigantic carbon reservoirs and filter our air. They are also crucial for preserving biodiversity and provide important habitats for humans and animals. At Dr. Oetker, we want to establish supply chains in which no deforestation or conversion of forests takes place by the end of 2025.
Acting without deforestation and conversion
When defining "forest" and "deforestation", we are guided by the criteria of the Accountability Framework Initiative (AFI). It also sets the so-called "cut-off date" at 01.01.2020 - the date after which no deforestation may have taken place on areas on which raw materials for Dr. Oetker are produced. Why is "conversion-free" also important to us? We do not want forests to be cut down for the manufacture of our products - nor do we want other ecosystems such as wetlands, savannahs and grasslands to be converted into agricultural areas.
High-risk commodities
In order to make rapid progress, we are initially focusing on commodities with a particularly high risk of deforestation: Among those are soy, palm oil, cocoa, cane sugar from Brazil and paper-based packaging. But they also include meat, dairy products and gelatine - as these require large areas of land for the cultivation of animal feed as well as pastureland. For these high-risk commodities, we develop individual solutions with our suppliers, define new purchasing standards and monitor compliance with them.
Improving social and ecological conditions
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. Since 2023, we are implementing 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.
Our promise: By 2023, 20 percent of the vanilla we use will be certified as sustainable. We are already a member of the Sustainable Vanilla Initiative (SVI), which has the goal of improving the sustainability and quality of vanilla production in the long term, especially in Madagascar, the largest region for vanilla cultivation.
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 on improving livestock farming, trapping, slaughtering, and transporting for our animal products.
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.
In 2022, we exclusively used chicken adhering to ECC criteria for Ristorante Pollo production at our facilities in Germany and Poland. Unfortunately, in 2023, we were only able to use conventional chicken meat due to supply issues. In 2024, we use chicken meat that meets the ECC criteria as standard for our Ristorante Pollo again. Until the end of 2025, we will exclusively be using this chicken on our pizzas.
Our Ristorante Pollo is sold in the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, Spain, Finland, Portugal, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Lithuania, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada.