Dive Brief:

• HelloFresh plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions from its operations around the world by 60% by 2022 as part of a series of sustainability goals, the Germany-based, meal-kit company unveiled Wednesday.
• As part of its efforts to go greener, the company said it is looking for ways to develop more environmentally friendly packaging for its products. HelloFresh noted that its efforts to source from local suppliers help reduce the amount of plastic it needs to use to transport goods.
• HelloFresh said it also strives to plan efficient delivery routes when shipping to customers, which it said yields benefits in terms of delivery speed and ingredient freshness in addition to saving energy.

Dive Insight:

With its sails billowing after a year of robust growth, HelloFresh is looking to improve its environmental profile as it scales up its operations. In its report, the company said it offset 100% of the direct carbon emissions caused by its production operations, deliveries, offices and corporate travel in 2020.

HelloFresh said in its report that procuring ingredients from local suppliers has been a key way to cut down on the consumption of energy from sources that generate carbon dioxide as a byproduct. Working with suppliers located near its facilities shrinks its transportation requirements, along with the number of buildings it needs to operate, it said.

And while the company drew attention to its desire to use as little packaging as possible and make that material easy to recycle, it noted that it has to balance its efforts with the need to uphold the freshness, quality and safety of the meal kits it produces.

To counter that, HelloFresh said it continues to work on a tool that helps it avoid shipping boxes with unused space by calculating the levels of secondary packaging and ice packs each kit needs.

Another way HelloFresh is hoping to further cut down on the amount of carbon it emits is by moving toward renewable energy sources at its facilities. The company converted its distribution center in the Texas metropolitan area of Dallas-Fort Worth — one of 20 it operates around the world — to wind energy in late 2020.

In June, HelloFresh took the same step at its distribution center in Swedesboro, New Jersey, and said it has entered contracts with wind energy suppliers for another two U.S. facilities that go into effect in 2021.