Mar 14, 2023   SOURCE: BusinessWire

HelloFresh Releases Sustainability Report: Commits to Setting Ambitious Carbon Reduction Goals in Line with Science Based Targets

HelloFresh, the world’s leading meal kit provider, today released its annual 2022 Sustainability Report (Non-Financial Report) and announced a new commitment to set science-based emissions reduction targets. The global report demonstrates the company’s progress in further decreasing its environmental impact and introduces new interim goals for reducing carbon emissions and food waste by 2025.

“As a global food solutions group, we recognize the important contribution we can and must make in driving sustainable progress on climate change,” said Jeffrey Yorzyk, Senior Director of Sustainability, HelloFresh US. “By setting science-based targets, we are helping to do our part in reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees or less.”

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is a global body enabling businesses to set ambitious emissions reduction targets in line with the latest climate science and Paris Agreement goals. HelloFresh will work with SBTi to develop and validate its targets before the end of 2024.

Making our operations more energy efficient
In addition to setting science-based targets, HelloFresh continues to make operations more energy efficient and transition to renewable energy. The share of green energy consumed in HelloFresh’s distribution centers and offices in 2022 increased to 53%, from 50% in 2021 and 35% in 2020.

In the US, HelloFresh piloted a new software that optimizes energy use from refrigeration systems within its distribution centers. Refrigeration is the largest consumer of electricity within its operating facilities and HelloFresh is now rolling out the software across all US facilities. HelloFresh US has also sourced renewable electricity for 100% of its facilities since 2020.

HelloFresh’s continued efforts in 2022 led to a 50% reduction in carbon emissions from its meal kit production facilities per euro revenue compared to a 2019 baseline, which means the company almost met its ambitious goals for 2022 of a 60% reduction.

Ongoing efforts to reduce food waste
Reducing food waste continues to be an integral part of HelloFresh's sustainability approach. In 2022, more than 26M lbs. of unsold edible food was donated to charities. Compared to a 2019 baseline, the company managed to reduce the food waste sent to landfill or incineration from all our meal-kit facilities by 42%, which means the company almost met its ambitious goals for 2022 of a 50% reduction.

The company’s social impact program within the US, called Beyond the Box, aims to change the way people eat, forever, inclusive of those facing food insecurity. The program consists of their “Meals with Meanings” initiative which provided 2 million free meal kits in 2022 to individuals in need, with each kit containing HelloFresh ingredients and step-by-step recipe cards to create home-cooked meals. Additionally, through the Beyond the Box program, the company contributed 12.3 million pounds of surplus food in the US, supporting more than 20 charities across the country.

Ambitious targets set for 2025
With the rapid growth of the company’s recently acquired ready-to-eat business vertical and the substantial difference in operations compared with the meal kit business, HelloFresh has established separate environmental goals for each of these verticals:

Meal kit business:
1. Reduce the emissions from the HelloFresh Group’s meal kit production facilities by 66% per euro revenue from a 2019 baseline by the end of 2025.
2. Reduce food waste from the HelloFresh Group’s meal kit production facilities by 52% per euro revenue from a 2019 baseline by the end of 2025.

Other businesses, represented by ready-to-eat vertical:
1. Reduce the emissions from HelloFresh’s other businesses' production facilities by 30% per euro revenue from a 2021 baseline by the end of 2025.
2. Reduce food waste from HelloFresh’s other businesses' production facilities by 56% per euro revenue from a 2021 baseline by the end of 2025.

To learn more about HelloFresh’s sustainability efforts and to view the full Non-Financial Report, click here.

About HelloFresh
HelloFresh is the world’s leading meal-kit company. Founded in Berlin in November 2011, the Company now operates across 18 international markets. In 2022, HelloFresh furthered their mission to “change the way people eat forever” by delivering more than 490 million meals to customers across the U.S. HelloFresh was voted the Most Trusted Meal Kit Delivery Service in America in 2021 and 2022 by Newsweek. HelloFresh has offices in New York, Chicago, and Boulder. For more information, visit www.hellofresh.com.