Climate change and biodiversity loss are the most pressing environmental challenges of our time. Food systems contribute to 80% of global deforestation and are responsible for 29% of global green house gas emissions (GHG). Addressing this issue requires urgent action and is the responsibility of all to reverse the damaging impact manufacturing process can have on the planet. We are on a journey towards reducing the impact of our operations, with a clear goal to have Net Zero green house gas emission by 2050.
We are on a mission to reduce our impact on the planet, with an ambition to hit Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and start our journey towards soil and ocean regeneration.
Kerstin Schmeiduch, Head of Corporate Comms and Sustainability for Purina Europe
Reaching Net zero emissions is a key part of Purina's sustainability journey
Achieving reduced emissions will involve significant changes that will transform our business. Going forward we will focus on four key areas for accelerated action.
Sourcing & regeneration
Sourcing is a critical part of reducing our Net Zero journey and implementing new ways of growing ingredients can help us do so. In addition, we want to go beyond simply reducing our impact and work towards a regenerative approach.
Manufacturing and logistics
It's no surprise that manufacturing and logistics processes produce greenhouse gas emissions. Our focus on driving efficiencies in how we make our products, the type of energy we use to run our factories, to efficiencies in getting our products from A to B, all contributes towards our Net Zero ambition.
Renewable electricity can be created through a variety of sources, including wind power, solar power, and hydropower. Our Purina factories are purchasing renewable electricity through a variety of means.
Transforming our product portfolio
The ingredients we use contribute more than two thirds of the green house gas emissions for our brands, including how they are produced and processed. We will take action in the coming years to reinvent our recipes, with the goal to reduce our impact through making better use and choice of resources.
Consumers continue to expect Purina to deliver best-in-class products that provide health, taste and enjoyment for their pets and we have every intention of maintaining the quality of our products. To keep delivering quality pet nutrition whilst reducing our climate impact is at the core of our work. Click on the ingredients below to find out more about some of our initiatives.
As an example, 99% of the soya we use is now responsibly sourced and traceable.
We are also helping cereal farmers to transition to Regenerative Agriculture.
As part of our Purina sustainability plan, we are partnering with fishers to enhance fishing practices. Working with the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership to evaluate our fish sources, with 86% of our seafood ingredients responsibly sourced at the end of 2021. We have set ourselves a target that 100% of our fish will be responsible sourced by the end of 2023.
We are also exploring new sources of proteins like, for example, fava beans or insects to rebalance animal and vegetable proteins while continuing to deliver nutritious products.
We are exploring more circular ingredients solutions, like Purina Adventurous where we piloted an initiative in the Netherlands using surplus grains from a brewery, that might otherwise have been left to spoil, helping to reduce waste.
Packaging
Transforming our packaging plays a key role in our Journey to Net Zero. Improving the recyclability and reusability of our pet food packaging not only helps to reduce packaging waste but also makes packaging more easily recyclable, which can reduce GHG emissions.
We remain committed to designing 100% of our packaging for recycling. By 2025, we expect that above 95% of it will be.
Cedric Moulin, Packaging Platform Manager for Purina Europe
Going forward we will focus on reducing single-use packaging and working towards all of our packaging being recyclable or reusable. Our ambition is still that 100% of our plastic packaging will be design for recycling. By 2025, we expect that above 95% of it will be. We also aim to also reduce the use of virgin plastics by one third for 2025. And we are working on reducing both the number of different material layers and the complexity of those materials to make our packaging easier to recycle. The reduction in the use of virgin plastics and increase in use of recycled materials contributes to the reduction of green house gas emissions.
Of course even when all of our packaging is designed for recycling, it is still essential that the correct infrastructure exists for local councils to be able to collect and recycle the packaging to complete the process. And even where this local infrastructure exists sometimes it also requires a helping hand from the people who purchase our products, for example by separating packaging or popping to the recycling bank.
In partnership with suppliers, we're creating new, less complex packaging materials. For example Gourmet Mon-Petit Intense Pouches, and Felix Soups mono-material pouches use only one type of material, and are designed for recycling. Simultaneously, we have also been exploring alternative packaging solutions, such as a pilot scheme to include refillable dispensers in Switzerland. To help us recycle you can find the information for the majority of our products in the link below! Over 78% of our products are already designed to be recyclable. Bear with us, the team here at Purina are working on the rest!
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