HELSINKI, Finland – Paulig has submitted a pledge to endorse the EU Code of Conduct on responsible food business and marketing practices and wants to contribute to the aspirations of the Code through the company’s ambitious sustainability approach towards 2030. Paulig’s pledge will be published at the Code of Conduct website, where the reporting will also be visible for monitoring.
Paulig has integrated sustainability into its strategy and business operations, and sustainability is incorporated in the highest-level leadership team. The company wants to show leadership and be a sustainable frontrunner in the food & beverage industry through clear commitments that are ambitious, tangible, quantitative and measurable, and well in line with the Code of Conduct’s focus areas of environmental, social and health dimensions of sustainability.
“Paulig’s sustainability ambitions are based on the UN sustainable development goals and chosen based on where our actions would create the biggest positive impact”, says Kaisa Lipponen, SVP, Communications and Sustainability at Paulig. In addition to Farm to Fork strategy, Paulig is keeping a close eye on the UN human rights framework, the EU Green Deal, to ensure alignment and set directions beyond compliance.
Paulig’s sustainability ambitions reach until 2030, in line with the UN sustainability development goals. The company’s ambitions to be showcased and publicly monitored in relation to the Code are the following:
- 70% of Paulig’s net sales come from products and services which enable health and wellbeing of people and planet.
- 80% less GHG emissions from Paulig’s own operations and 50% less GHG emissions in our value chain from 2018 baseline.
- All Paulig’s packages will be recyclable and made from renewable or recycled materials.
- 100% of raw materials from high-risk areas come from sustainable sources verified by external parties.
The quantitative targets have been chosen based on a review of Paulig’s current status and/or the aim of being ambitious enough to drive change towards a sustainable food system. For Paulig’s climate targets the company wanted to align with the Paris agreement of a 1.5-degrees scenario. The climate targets have been approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative and were at the time of approval the most ambitious climate targets approved by the initiative.
Paulig welcomes the Code of Conduct and is looking forward to actively support the development towards the ambitions set in the Code. Paulig believes that together with this commitment the company can improve sustainability at a broader level.