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HiPP organic food jars are climate-positive

HiPP organic food jars are manufactured in climate-positive processes throughout the entire value chain, from the cultivation of raw materials to the retailer’s warehouse. Photo: HiPP

HiPP organic food jars are climate-positive

Baby food manufacturer HiPP aims for the entire company to be climate-positive by 2025. The entire value chain for its supplementary food jars is already climate-positive and keeps around 38,000 tons of CO2 out of our atmosphere every year. Together with sustainability consultancy Soil & More Impacts, HiPP is analysing processes, making adjustments and, above all, ensuring it stays in close contact to its suppliers, packaging manufacturers and growers. The company has one aim: to give back more to the environment than it takes away – a goal that has already been reached when it comes to the value chain for the company’s supplementary food jars.

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Close cooperation with sustainability consultancy Soil & More Impacts

Tobias Bandel, founder of Soil & More Impacts

Tobias Bandel consults companies on their way to sustainability. He is the founder of Soil & More Impacts. Photo: Tobias Bandel

Soil & More Impacts has been active on the market since early 2007, accompanying clients such as Ritter Sport and the GLS Bank on their way to sustainability. To achieve this, the Hamburg-based consultancy has a range of services in its portfolio, one of which is in extremely high demand: finding the right climate strategy for the respective client. “Some companies have dedicated whole departments to sustainability, others have assigned individual employees to the issue,” explains founder Tobias Bandel. “However, the main thing is that sustainability is not seen as something that runs alongside daily business and instead becomes the new daily business.”

Climate-positive as an objective of upper management

Dr Johannes Knubben, Head of Sustainability Management at HiPP

Dr Johannes Knubben is Head of Sustainability Management at HiPP. Photo: HiPP

“The methodological, calculatory path may be costly, however, if the company has the right attitude, implementing the necessary actions is perfectly feasible,” says Dr Johannes Knubben, Head of Sustainability Management at HiPP. “The Hipp family is ensuring we have the necessary tailwind during implementation, as sustainable manufacturing and management are at the core of the company’s philosophy.” He adds, “We cooperate closely with our suppliers, growers and farmers, and they are all grateful for any concrete support measures, knowledge and information we provide.” In fact, Soil & More Impacts’ True Cost Accounting programme helps visualise positive and negative environmental effects in monetary terms, factoring in aspects such as water, soil and biodiversity.

Helpful measures that increase sustainability

Implementing a few, simple measures can help improve the carbon footprint of any production location. The first step is to review electricity and gas providers. Another option is to reduce food waste; here, it is important to develop a concept for the further utilization of seconds, for example. An additional step is to review the supply chain: in the food industry, agricultural measures can help bind large amounts of CO2. As an added benefit, this makes the harvest more resilient, thus reducing procurement risks.

To give an example: baby food manufacturer HiPP compensates unavoidable emissions along the supply chain through its own climate protection projects. On Stefan Hipp’s own model farm in Poland, cow dung is converted into valuable compost. The compost heap is aerated with a compost windrow turner, allowing humus to build up over the course of eight to ten weeks in a controlled environment; at the same time, this aerobic method significantly reduces the methane emissions that usually occur – the primary climate effect in this instance. When the compost is spread over the fields, it then helps build up humus in the soil, and with it, CO2.

Associate Stefan Hipp in nature

Associate Stefan Hipp ensures the company is sustainable. Photo: HiPP

Considering the long term – and the ability to sustain

Politics is increasingly calling for more climate-positive and sustainable actions. “In the future, I would like to see an obligation to provide more transparency,” says Bandel. “Sustainability is more than a marketing term, it’s the ability to sustain, in other words, a strategy to stay in business in the long term.”

The criteria of the Sustainability Code