We are extremely pleased to announce our latest initiative to reduce the use of plastic packaging across our top-selling Wholesome range on our Seeded, White and Vitality variants. This initiative will enable us to make another leap in our efforts to boost sustainability - one that’s sure to have a BIG impact.
Following countless hours of planning, research and trials, our dedicated team managed to cut the quantity of plastic packaging by more than a third. An incredible reduction that was made possible by removing the plastic tray. In removing the tray, we also lowered the overall pack size, resulting in an amazing 38% reduction of plastic.
Our Wholesome range is one of the best selling products within the Schär portfolio, accounting for 16% of total sales. Therefore these adaptations to the packaging will have a substantial impact on our environmental footprint, reducing our overall plastic consumption by a staggering 15% a year.
We couldn’t be prouder of this giant leap forward in our mission to create a better future for our people, communities and planet.
Our dedicated team had to overcome technical challenges, in order to guarantee that the Wholesome loaf you know and love maintained the same high quality. Firstly, the team had to find the right packaging partner, which proved to be a major hurdle given Schär’s stringent safety and quality standards. It was critical for our collaborator to produce a packaging film that was 100% sealed, whilst being quick and efficient during production to ensure maximum freshness.
In addition, as Schär does not use alcohol or preservatives, devising the new packaging film represented a complex challenge. Once the team had developed the new dimensions, the film had to undergo lengthy trails and tests to ensure the same safety, quality and freshness were achieved.
In addition to reducing plastic, the packaging adaptation improves our sustainability in another key area – logistics. Due to the smaller pack size, we are able to transport 30% more loaves within one trip. This means we now need fewer trucks to transport our Wholesome loaves around the globe, reducing our carbon footprint (this is approx. 778 trucks and 580.737 km saved per year – based on sales forecast 2023 data).
Can’t wait to get your hands on the new packs? You don’t need to wait anymore!
The Schär Wholesome White and Schär Wholesome Seeded will be hitting the shelves in Italy in the second half of 2023, followed by the other markets in late 2023 and early 2024 and the full range by 2027.
This impactful change to our biggest-selling range is all part of a larger goal to make our packaging more sustainable. We aim to reduce the total amount of material we use and favour more environmentally friendly paper over plastic, with the goal to make all packaging recyclable, recycled or compostable.
With this in mind, we’re now analysing and testing new recyclable materials for the Wholesome range, with the goal to implement them within the next years.
At Schär we want to carve out “seeding a better world” and we’re going about it in a variety of other ways, too. Sustainable farming is at the heart of what we do, protecting and promoting minor crops and biodiversity. In addition, we are making steps to reduce our carbon footprint, by switching to solar sources and improving our logistics practices.
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