As part of our Sustainability 2023 report, ESM caught up with industry leaders across a host of leading retail and consumer goods firms to discuss their ESG achievements to date, efforts made to tackle Scope 3 emissions, and what the current cost-of-living crisis means for sustainability – both for themselves and their consumer base.
Jeff Yorzyk, Senior Director, Sustainability, HelloFresh
With global inflation hitting the food sector, we can expect customers to tighten their budgets. HelloFresh represents a win-win in that regard. As well as presenting a more sustainable way to enjoy a meal at home, our studies also show that we cost less than meals prepared from retailers.
We also recently conducted a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) – a peer-reviewed study analysing the environmental footprint of meals. It found that our meals have significantly lower carbon emissions – on average, 25% – than cooking meals from grocery stores. Much of that is due to how we use data to prevent unsold inventory and food waste, combined with our lean supply chain.
Clear Company Mission
A clear company mission and vision are crucial. Our mission is to change the way people eat, forever. This mission goes beyond just changing the way customers shop for and prepare food. It means providing better access to nutritious, fresh ingredients in a more sustainable way.
Every team at HelloFresh has individual objectives that are connected to HelloFresh’s group objectives and key results (OKRs). Building a more sustainable business is inherent to HelloFresh’s strategy and success, and therefore deeply rooted within each team member’s work.
In addition, we have quarterly ESG update meetings, where our sustainability function updates our C-level, as well as our ESG supervisory board, on the latest progress we are making across our ESG landscape. This helps ensure ongoing innovation, and that sustainability is being led and prioritised from the very top of the business.
Assessing Carbon Footprint
We strongly consider carbon as a key metric in the measurement of our business and will zoom in on this over the course of the next year, as we assess our footprint from end to end under the science-based target-setting process.
In addition, we know that food waste is also a global issue – each year, around one third of the food produced globally goes to waste, accounting for 8% to 10% of global GHG emissions, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO]. GHG emissions aren’t the only negative consequence of food waste.
The agricultural impact of producing food that goes to waste before it can be consumed needlessly affects the planet’s nature and biodiversity.
We take food waste incredibly seriously at HelloFresh. While our business model is inherently geared towards lower levels of food waste, we have prioritised further food waste reduction as one of our core targets.
This article first appeared in ESM’s November/December 2022 edition.
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
