Ferrero Group launches Sustainability Report

Ferrero has released a report on the company’s approach to sustainability, which outlines how it is continuing to deal with packaging, plastic use and energy sourcing.

“The pandemic created global social and economic disruption that varied from country to country,” said Giovanni Ferrero, Executive Chairman of the Ferrero Group. “However, as a business we were able to demonstrate resilience and the solid progress of our sustainability plans has not been affected, as you will read. In addition, our business continues to expand, both through new acquisitions and through organic growth.”

The 2021 Sustainability Progress Report notes that the company is set to meet its goal of all of its packaging being reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. It is also aiming to reduce its use of virgin plastics by 10% and increase the amount of recycled content used by 12% in this time.

Ferrero has also stated that it is transitioning its energy use away from fossil fuels, with 84% of the electricity purchased for its manufacturing plants now coming from renewable sources and 16 of the firm’s plants running on 100% renewable electricity.

Finally, the report describes how farming is being altered to boost sustainability, with its cane sugar being certified by Bonsucro, 95% of its cocoa supply being traceable back to farm level and training being delivered to over 134,000 farmers in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana to promote responsible agriculture practices.

“As you will see throughout this report, we have substantially advanced many aspects of our sustainability strategy towards the objectives we set ourselves,” said Lapo Civiletti, Chief Executive Officer of the Ferrero Group.

“We increased our energy efficiency and confirmed a central capital-expenditure program aimed at reducing our carbon footprint and achieved many improvements in our packaging portfolio, in line with our sustainability roadmap to 2025.

“In raw-material supply chains we published or updated our Cocoa Charter, Palm Oil Charter and Hazelnut Charter, aiming for production that creates value for all in each respective industry.”

The report is available on Ferrero’s sustainability site.