Better for the Environment

As a provider of foodstuffs, we have a small direct environmental footprint compared to other players in the food value chain. Nevertheless, we want to be exemplary in what we do and motivate both our customers and our business partners to make their own contribution. In 2020, we therefore began to record key climate figures for our Company for the first time – and already made encouraging progress in certain categories in 2022:

• Better for the Climate
• Better Products
• Better for the Water – and Better Energy
• Better Packaging

Better for the climate

Since 2020, we have regularly reported on our key climate in-dicators, as we did again this year. As a food supplier, we have a smaller environmental footprint than other players in the food industry. Nevertheless, we want to set a good example and be transparent about our consumption. We also want to motivate our customers and business partners to be aware of their own consumption and to make their own contribution to climate protection.
Our CO₂ emissions from Scope 1 according to Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG) increased last year (2022: 88.7 t CO₂e, 2021: 13.8 t CO₂e). This was mainly due to high refrigerant consump-tion. CO₂ emissions from Scope 2 according to GHG also increased (2022: 25.1 t CO₂e, 2021: 7.2 t CO₂e), primarily as a result of the gradual decline of the pandemic and the return to increased use of our own fleet. In addition, we opened two more production facilities in 2022 – in Spielberg and Neu-brandenburg – which led to higher consumption. The 2021 figures for CO₂ consumption were corrected in this report, as the previously reported figures were calculated on the basis of an incorrect emission factor. This results in new, corrected consumption figures, which are listed in the tables on our Scope 1, 2 and 3 consumption.

CO₂-Emissions: Scope 1 [1]

CO₂-Emissions: Scope 2 [2]

As a food supplier, a large part of our emissions occur along the value chain – more precisely within our upstream supply chain. Our Scope 3 emissions according to GHG come almost exclusively from the cultivation, production and upstream transport of our food. As we distributed fewer products in 2022 Scope 3 emissions decreased accordingly to 8.1 thousand t CO₂e (prior year: 10.8 thousand t CO₂e).

CO₂-Emissions: Scope 3 [3]

In 2022, our emissions decreased by around 24% across all three scopes and thus fell more strongly than sales (2022: -22.7%). Our CO₂ intensity in 2022 amounted to 318 t CO₂e per €1 million sales and was thus below the intensity of the previous year (prior year: 323 t CO₂e per €1 million sales). Our original goal was to set a binding temperature target for our own CO₂ emissions during the fiscal year 2022 which would be in line with the targets of the Paris Climate Agreement. The X-Degree Compatibility (XDC) model was to be used for this purpose. In the course of the target-setting project, the methodology underlying the XDC model proved to be increasingly impractical for comparatively small companies like Veganz – on the path to sustainable profitable growth. As a substitute, we have therefore initially set a product-related CO₂ target which aims to reduce the carbon footprint of our products by 6% to 2.5 kg CO₂ emissions per kilogram of product by 2025. However, we will maintain our plan of setting an overarching CO₂ temperature target for Vegan and will review alternative and more cost-effective models and methods in 2023.

Better Products

Everyone can reduce their diet-related CO₂emissions by almost half by adopting a vegan diet. As a flexitarian, you can also help reduce emissions by a quarter.’ We are therefore convinced that plant-based nutrition is an important lever for slowing climate change. With our purely vegan product range, we want to motivate as many people as possible to try plant-based alternatives and thus make their diet more climate-friendly.

With our plant-based foods we already cause significantly less CO₂ than comparable animal products, but emissions cannot be completely avoided yet. Last year, we were able to reduce the carbon footprint of the products we purchase by 16.8% to 6.3 thousand t CO₂e, which was slightly less than the decrease in sales (2022: -22.7%).

We want to continue to develop ourselves and our products in the future and are therefore focusing on constant innovation: in 2022, we invested around €310.0 thousand in our research and development, more than 20 times as much as in the previous year (prior year: around €14.8 thousand).

We attach great importance to being transparent for our consumers – and not only with regard to our product ingredients. Since 2019. we have therefore been one of the few companies worldwide to disclose detailed figures for the respective eco-balance of all our products, thus making the climate impact of our products directly visible to everyone. In order to reliably collect this data, we cooperate with the Swiss institute Eaternity, an independent organisation that calculates the ecological footprint of food. With the aid of modern methodology and our extensive data on raw materials, suppliers and producers Eaternity calculates a specific sustainability score for each of our products. This is recorded for a total of four categories: CO₂ emissions, water consumption, animal welfare and rainforest protection.

Of our basic ingredients, we consider palm oil, cocoa, cashews and soy to be the ones that require special attention. In order to guarantee minimum social and ecological standards, we rely on various certifications of our suppliers and producers. For example, 100% of our palm oil processors have RSPO (Round-table on Sustainable Palm Oil) certification (prior year: 100%). With regard to our cocoa-processing producers, we were able to increase the proportion who can demonstrate either Fair-trade or UTZ certification – and thus confirm the socially and ecologically sustainable cultivation of cocoa – to 71% (prior year: 64%). The cashews we process in our in-house production are supplied by a company in Vietnam with several certifi-cates: BIO, Fairtrade, IFS and BRC (Brand Reputation through Compliance). This supplier has also undergone an ethical trade audit to document its social responsibility and ethical behav-lour, conducted by the organisation Sedex, an agency for sustainable supply chain studies.

Better for the Water – and Better Energy

Due to the easing of pandemic-related restrictions, more em-plovees returned to the office in 2022. As a result. our water consumption increased by 33% to 1,934 m° (prior year: 1,454 m°), resulting in a water intensity of 74.7 m3 per €1 million of sales (prior year: 43.4 m3). We source our water exclusively in Berlin and thus did not draw any water from areas with a high or very high groundwater stress level according to the World Resource Institute (WRI). Once again, there were no violations of official water safety regulations in 2022.

More employees in the office not only means higher water con-sumption, but also higher electricity consumption: our electricity and district heating consumption in 2022 was 484 MWh (prior year: 455 MWh) – both purchased exclusively from external energy suppliers. Our electricity consumption from renewable energies is exactly the same as last year at 99.4%. The missing percentage points to the full 100% are due to the charging stations for electric vehicles, as these are not yet supplied from renewable energies.

Similar to water and electricity consumption, our natural gas consumption also increased slightly to 13 MWh (prior year: 9 MWh). Taken together, these increases result in an energy intensity of 18.7 MWh per €1 million of sales (prior year: 13.6 MWh) Veganz will continue to use energy sparingly in the future. In 2022, we published our energy policy and thus reiterated our commitment to energy efficiency: https://veganz.de/w-content/uploads/2022/05/2022-04-25-energiepolitik-veganz-group-ag-en-signed.pdf

Energy Consumptions [6]

Better Packaging

Although our products are at the heart of what we do, we also care about everything around them – such as the packaging.
We are therefore proud that in 2022. 100% of our product packaging was recyclable, reusable or compostable. The total weight of the products we sold in 2022 was 3,426 t. Of this, 436 t was pure packaging material (prior year: 649 t), the majority of which (295 t) consisted of easily recyclable paper for transport. This means that our packaging intensity fell to 16.8 thousand kg per €1 million sales (prior year: 19.4 thousand kg per €1 million sales). The previous year’s figures on packaging types were corrected within the scope of this report. as they were partly calculated incorrectly. This results in new, corrected values, which are listed in the table on packaging material.

Packaging materials

In 2022, our waste volume decreased significantly year on year due to operational reasons and a lower specific weight of the products sold. We want to continue to move towards a circular economy in the future and have therefore set ourselves the target of using packaging made of fully recycled and/or renewable material for at least 50% of our products by 2025 – docu-mented, for example, with the Blue Angel or the FSC seal (For-est Stewardship Council). In 2022, the proportion of packaging made from fully recycled materials was just under 20%.
Furthermore, we have implemented special measures in the area of packaging, such as the use of compostable films made from NatureFlex™ material, renewable packaging materials made from cellulose and starch, and almost exclusively mineral oil-free printing inks.

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[1] Figures for the central warehouse are not included. Some data are estimated, extrapolated or based on prior-year figures.

[2] Market-based figures. Figures for the central warehouse are not included. Some data are estimated, extrapolated or based on prior-year figures.

[3] Figures for the central warehouse are not included. Some data are estimated, extrapolated or based on prior-year figures.

[4] Source: Mrówczy´nska-Kami´nska A, Bajan B, Pawłowski KP, Genstwa N, Zmy´slona J (2021). Greenhouse gas emissions intensity of food production systems and its determinants. PLoS ONE 16(4): e0250995. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250995
Note: The study reports currency figures in dollars. Our conversion from dollars to euros here is based on the exchange rate of 1 EUR = 1.21 USD as of 31 December 2014.

[5] German Federal Environment Agency (n.d.). CO2 calculator of the German Federal Environment Agency. Retrieved from https://uba.co2-rechner.de/de_DE/ on 18.04.2022

[6] Figures for the central warehouse are not included. Some data are estimated, extrapolated or based on prior-year figures.