Initiatives & partnerships
The challenges we face as a society are enormous and complex. As a single company, our influence is limited. We recognise that long-term success depends on sustainable growth, collective action, broad coalitions and strong partnerships.
Accordingly, we maintain dialogue with numerous stakeholders and, in cooperation with other innovative companies, organisations and partners, we are primarily involved in the areas that underlie our sustainability model.
In the interests of our people, communities and the planet, we continue to seek open and transparent exchange.
With our netZERO 2050 vision, we are extending CO2e reduction targets to our entire value chain and moving towards a net-zero reduction path. We are doing this based on scientific and independently validated CO2e reduction targets based on the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
Trust, proximity to the source and quality awareness characterise the long-standing partnership with our milk suppliers. With love and passion, over 5,000 Emmi milk suppliers look after the well-being of their cows every day and are proud of the innovative and high-quality products that we make from them.
We are convinced that the knowledge of our employees is key to driving forward sustainability efforts within Emmi. After all, nobody knows Emmi better than its employees. In addition to the five strategically managed focus topics, the course is to be set for the implementation of sustainability aspects in the day-to-day work of the approximately 12,000 Emmi employees. To achieve this, it is important to promote a comprehensive understanding of sustainability. We strengthen this awareness through continuous communication about smaller and larger sustainability projects along the value chain and an annually changing sustainability motto, which also includes a sustainability competition.
With Nestlé and in association with the milk producer organisations aaremilch and the Central Switzerland Milk Producers Cooperative (ZMP), we are undertaking the “KlimaStaR Milk” resource project. The cross-sector initiative aims to make the Swiss dairy industry competitive in the long term in terms of climate protection and resource efficiency. The target is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural milk production by an average of 20%, by means of a company-specific package of measures. Food-feed competition is also to be cut by 20%.
The project is supported by the Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG) and involves 230 agricultural pilot sites. The Bern School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (HAFL) and ETH Zurich are supporting the project as scientific partners.
WWF Switzerland and Emmi share a vision of a food system that respects the Earth’s ecological boundaries. On this basis, the two partners have maintained a partnership on relevant sustainability issues since 2016.
WWF Switzerland provides Emmi with strategic support on its path to achieving its ambitious targets in the areas of climate and energy, food waste and establishing a sustainable dairy industry beyond Switzerland. The successful collaboration with WWF has helped us to build a broad sustainability model based on science-based targets and a net-zero reduction path by 2050 that is in line with our tradition and our responsible business model.
The Science Based Targets initiative is a partnership between the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and NGOs such as the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The SBTi’s validated scientific targets help companies like Emmi to align their CO2e footprint to a net-zero reduction path. This is an important instrument for limiting global warming to 1.5°C, the target set at the UN Climate Conference in Paris. Emmi aims to reduce its direct greenhouse gas emissions by 60% (Scope 1 and 2) compared to 2014 by 2027 (in line with the Emmi science-based interim reduction target validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi)). The company is extending its commitment to the entire value chain (Scope 3) and is also setting itself science-based targets in this regard (SBTi).
sciencebasedtargets.org
Around the world, around a third of all food ends up being thrown away. This doesn’t just mean we’re wasting food containing valuable nutrients, but also precious resources. Plus, food waste causes 10% of annual global CO2 emissions. As a result, we are duty-bound to act: Emmi has set itself the target of halving food waste by 2027. The main reason why food is thrown away is because of its limited shelf life.
Many consumers blindly rely on the date stated on the packaging. There is often a best-before date on dairy products. But this is actually just a guarantee of quality. Many consumers have trouble with this concept, however. They equate this with the use-by date and throw the food away without a second thought after it expires, even though it would still be perfectly good to eat. To prevent this from happening in the future, we are supporting the food safety campaign “often good for longer” by Too Good To Go (TGTG) and have joined the “Waste Warrior Brands”. This is an association of companies that have joined forces to fight food waste. 104 Emmi products are labelled with the “Often good for longer” logo, with more to follow.
Created as a self-help organisation by business for business, EnAW has supported us in Switzerland for years and helps us to continuously reduce our greenhouse gas emissions from our production facilities.
With our membership in the Soy Network Switzerland association, we would like to help ensure that only certified soy is used in Swiss milk production. The Soy Network Switzerland is committed to responsible cultivation and sustainable procurement of feed soy. The network’s buyers import 98% of responsibly sustainably produced soy. In 2020, the network celebrated its 10th anniversary.
Emmi Schweiz AG is a founding member of the non-profit organisation RecyPac. This industry organisation is committed to establishing a recycling system that involves all players along the value chain in order to collect plastic packaging and beverage cartons across the board and recycle them to a high standard. This will close an important gap in the Swiss circular economy.
Press release from 17 January 2025
5,700 tonnes of polystyrene are processed for food packaging in Switzerland every year, part of which is put on the market in the form of 500 million yogurt cups. To ensure that as much as possible of the 5,700 tonnes are returned for recycling, all the players along the value chain are involved in the rPS (recycled polystyrene) Roundtable. The aim of the initiative is to obtain approval from the Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG) for the recycling of polystyrene for food packaging and to effectively close materials cycles within Switzerland.
