News Sustainability Report 2020 | May 10, 2021
Kilchberg, May 10, 2021 – Today, Lindt & Sprüngli published its eleventh Sustainability Report. The report contains detailed information on our achievements, progress, and plans in the critical field of sustainability. Despite the difficult year, Lindt & Sprüngli still managed to fulfill important commitments of our Sustainability Plan, outlining the Groups sustainability strategy. At the same time we are happy to present new commitments in the areas of packaging and climate.
For many years now, we have emphasized responsibility in our cocoa bean supply chain through our own sustainability program – the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program. We are proud of this commitment and are delighted that we have achieved a major milestone: 100% of our cocoa beans are now traceable and verified. This is an important step toward the sustainable production of our chocolate products.
In 2020, we also reached milestones in the areas of water consumption and reduction of CO2 emissions: In our manufacturing process per ton of production compared to 2015, we achieved a more than 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions as well as a 22% decrease in municipal water consumption.
Additionally, we announce new important commitments within this report. The amount and type of packaging we use, how we source it and what can be done with it after use has a huge impact on our overall environmental footprint. Our new commitments cover all the critical points of the packaging usage cycle, ensuring that we minimise the amount of virgin resources we take out of the environment and also carefully manage the end-of-life of our packaging material. We commit that by 2025 we will:
- Make all our packaging 100% recyclable or reusable
- Eliminate 100% of non- recyclable plastic and reduce total virgin plastic use by 20%
- Source 100% of our pulp and paper-based packaging from a certified sustainable supply chain
- Make at least 50% of all our packaging from recycled materials
- Continuously and proactively challenge our entire packaging portfolio and strive to reduce packaging materials used
Furthermore, we will set a new climate commitment to define a ‘Science-Based Target’ (SBT) by 2023, with a long-term goal to reach net-zero emissions to significantly advance our efforts. With this goal we aim to reduce Lindt & Sprüngli’s greenhouse gas emissions according to reduction levels needed to limit the rise in global average temperatures. This approach is in line with the United Nations Paris Agreement. Setting an SBT requires us to accurately account for our emissions and have processes in place to drive and verify emissions reductions in line with the target we commit to. This applies not only to greenhouse gases from our direct operations, but from the entire value chain (e.g., from raw material production and supplier emissions to employee travel and packaging disposal).
Please find detailed information on our commitments, progress and achievements here:
Media Contact | +41 44 716 22 33 | media@lindt.com
Investors Contact | +41 44 716 25 37 | investors@lindt.com
About Lindt & Sprüngli
Lindt & Sprüngli has been enchanting the world with chocolate for over 175 years. The traditional Swiss company with its roots in Zurich is a global leader in the premium chocolate sector. Today, Lindt & Sprüngli produces quality chocolates at its 11 factories in Europe and the USA. Its products are sold by 29 subsidiaries and regional offices, in around 500 of its own shops as well as via a network of more than 100 independent distributors around the globe. With more than 13,500 employees, the Lindt & Sprüngli Group reported sales of CHF 4.02 billion in 2020.