Dealing with CO₂e emissions is a key topic in HALBA’s corporate sustainability programme. We need energy to produce our high-quality foods. Chocolate production involves a large number of processes, and it requires especially large amounts of heat. To protect the climate, we continuously reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases and offset the remainder with reforestation projects in our own value chain. This has made production at HALBA completely climate-neutral since 2017 (Climate Protection Policy) . Our guiding principle: avoid – reduce – offset.
Avoid means choosing processes that do not release any CO₂e. All our electricity comes from renewable sources, for example.
Reduce means setting up and adjusting processes so that they release less CO₂e – for instance, through energy efficiency measures.
Offset means compensating for unavoidable emissions. Here, we rely on CO₂e offsetting schemes within our own value chain.
At its modern production site in Pratteln, HALBA has established excellent conditions for climate-neutral production. As much as 95 per cent of all the required energy comes from renewable sources. For electricity, HALBA counts on hydropower. On sunny summer days, a solar system powers the entire high-bay warehouse and the logistics facilities. Thanks to woodchip heating and waste heat recovery, indirect greenhouse gas emissions from district heating have disappeared. The wood used in the woodchip heating is sourced within a 50-kilometre radius from Pratteln. Our Pratteln site is connected to the railway and river network, which reduces the CO₂e emissions generated in road traffic.
Due to the transport routes involved, the procurement of our raw materials generates CO₂e emissions. HALBA sources many raw materials from Europe so as to reduce transport distances. Since 2018, most of the green lentils and chickpeas we use no longer come from overseas but from an organic producer in the South of France. Some of HALBA’s organic hazelnuts come from North Macedonia. And 50 per cent of our dry mushroom selection already comes from southern Europe. Not only do we contribute to the reduction and offsetting of CO₂e emissions by using shorter transport routes, we also expect our suppliers to take responsibility (Procurement Policy).
HALBA offsets its operational CO₂e emissions and the emissions from products within its own value chain with the Carbon Neutral Product label, which supports reforestation projects in Honduras and Peru. Four trees must be planted to offset one tonne of CO₂e. We have planted 398,434 new trees since 2011 – around 99 every day.
In early 2019, we launched new reforestation projects in Ghana and Ecuador. They are the world’s first projects that combine cocoa cultivation in dynamic agroforestry with Gold Standard carbon offsets. The Gold Standard is the strictest standard for climate protection projects. Our parent company Coop will be offsetting more than 130,000 tonnes of CO₂e from business flights, airfreight and home deliveries with these two projects over the next 7 years.
Climate change is one of the greatest challenges our society faces today, and its impacts affect HALBA, too. That is why we always seek to contribute to the fight against climate change. We constantly endeavour to further reduce our CO₂e emissions across all areas with a view to reaching net zero by 2050.
