• Strong progress in 2020: carbon emissions at production facilities decreased from 5.5 to 2.4 grams per dollar of revenue*; remaining emissions were successfully offset
• Food waste in operations reduced by a third on a per dollar of revenue*; 73% of excess food was donated to charitable organisations
• First-time sustainability targets announced; targets will significantly impact reduction of carbon emissions and food waste

HelloFresh, the world’s leading meal kit provider, announces that it has exceeded its sustainability plans for 2020 and will further expand its efforts for 2021 and beyond. The recently published Sustainability Report 2020 highlights key achievements, in line with the “Sustainable Development Goals” defined by the United Nations.

HelloFresh New Zealand CEO Tom Rutledge says despite the company’s substantial growth over the past year, sustainability has remained a key focus for the business.

“In 2020, we offered our customers a safe, convenient way to source fresh ingredients when they needed it most. The message we want to convey to consumers is that their food source can be both convenient and environmentally conscious. We are proud to have already exceeded our sustainability goals for 2020 and plan to further expand our efforts over the coming year and beyond,” he says.

Carbon reduction strategy shows initial success

Key initiatives from 2020 included launching HelloFresh’s carbon reduction strategy. This also included offsetting 100% of direct carbon emissions from its internal operations and offices, plus all emissions from delivery to customers and corporate travel. HelloFresh has since become the first global carbon-neutral meal kit company and will continue to offset emissions over the course of 2021.

First reduction initiatives resulted in emissions at HelloFresh’s production facilities** decreasing by 46% from 5.5 to 2.4 grams per dollar of revenue*. This was driven by improved operational efficiency as well as replacing conventional energy sources with renewable energy and investments in HelloFresh’s production facilities. These initiatives will also continue to pay into the goal of reducing emissions in production facilities by 60% per dollar of revenue* by 2022.

Ongoing efforts to reduce food waste

HelloFresh’s lean, make-to-order business model inherently reduces food waste. From 2019 to 2020 HelloFresh already succeeded in reducing the amount of food waste from 0.35 to 0.24 grams per dollar of revenue*. And, in the case of surplus food roughly three-quarters, or more than 360 tonnes was donated to various organisations and communities such as KiwiHarvest. In addition to the weekly food donations, $135,000 was donated to KiwiHarvest and NZ Food Network in the last 12 months to support Kiwis facing food insecurity.

Ambitious targets set for 2022

For the first time, HelloFresh has set itself tangible, group wide environmental targets for two of the most pressing global issues:

1. Reducing production facilities CO2 emissions per dollar of revenue* by 60% by 2022
2. Reducing food waste to landfill or incineration per dollar of revenue* by 50% by 2022

The baseline year for both targets is 2019.

Tom Rutledge says: “The targets, in two of the most important and impactful areas of sustainability, provide the necessary framework for significantly progressing our efforts and will enable us to set standards for measuring other areas of environmental impact.”

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*Revenue figures have been converted using the historical IRD exchange rate as at 31/12/2020. All carbon emission and food waste figures have been pro-rated from a euro based KPI to an NZD based KPI using a constant exchange rate.

**Includes: distribution centers, excluding logistics hub

For the full report, see here.

Images are available here.

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