For a greener planet

Our sustainability goals

As a plant-based product, Simply V is already more sustainable than cheese, but that's not good enough for us. Because sustainability is close to our hearts, we have a whole team dedicated to it. As we want to progress continuously, we have set ourselves ambitious goals for 2025, which we are working hard to achieve. We would like to

• reduce our carbon footprint by 30%.
• reduce plastic output per package by 25%.
• increase the share of recycled or bio-based plastics to 75% of the packaging.
• make the packaging of our products fully recyclable

CO2 Emissions: avoid - reduce - compensate

CO2 emissions are one of the main causes of climate change, so we need to keep these emissions as low as possible. We at Simply V, want to help keep the Earth a planet worth living on. 

Avoiding CO2 is our primary goal. In order to analyse and optimise the energy efficiency of all company processes, we have had an energy management system in place for quite some time. For example, we have been using exclusively "green electricity" generated by hydropower since 2019. This has enabled us to completely avoid the indirect emissions caused by grid-based energy.

In order to keep our direct CO2 emissions from heat generation, refrigerants and our vehicle fleet as low as possible or to reduce them further, there are various measures we have taken. For example, we use energy-efficient drives and pumps, almost halving our direct emissions in 2020 in this way.

Orchard meadow in the Allgäu Region

We are also actively involved "on our own doorstep". In autumn, we planted a meadow orchard in the Allgäu region with old tree varieties that are threatened with extinction. Even though the meadow orchard is not an officially certified project, we are still creating new habitats for animal and plant species, contributing to biodiversity and at the same time binding CO2. An important issue for us.

Commitment to SchutzengelWerk Berlin

Sustainable action is not limited to environmental or climate protection. Social commitment and fair treatment of people who are not on the sunny side of life, especially children and young people, are also essential. To this end, we have been supporting the SchutzengelWerk in Berlin since this year. This commitment arose in the course of our Veganuary 2023 activities.

In January, we opened the Museum of Alternative Cheese in Berlin for a limited period of time. Already during the planning for this, we had decided to donate the proceeds from it to a local project in the greater Berlin area. We chose SchutzengelWerk because it is essential to offer children a perspective and to ensure that they eat a good, balanced diet. In this context, it is also important to give children access to new, future-oriented forms of nutrition. We will therefore continue to support the dedicated work of this initiative, both financially and materially.

SchutzengelWerk offers socially disadvantaged children age-appropriate care with sports, creative and cultural activities, homework help and intensive tutoring in the Lernengel houses, a varied vacation program and access to a healthy diet. A particular concern is the teaching of sustainable values and raising awareness of environmental protection, values that Simply V also supports, because a plant-based diet can help make everyday life more sustainable.

Packaging - reduce & recycle

Of course, we would prefer to be able to do without plastic altogether. Unfortunately, that is not possible. But it goes without saying that we make our packaging as environmentally friendly as possible. That is why we are continuously working on reducing plastic and improving recyclability. One good example is our Gourmet Slices.

With significantly thinner foils, we have been saving around 18% of plastic since March 2021. At the same time, 30 % of the new Gourmet Slices packaging is made of recycled plastic. This measure alone saves as much CO2 as a car emits over one million kilometres.

The packaging for the Simply V Gourmet Grated is also thinner now. We were able to save a whole 20% of plastic. The next step is to change the packaging to mono-material, which is 100% recyclable. In this way, we are working to make all packaging more environmentally friendly, bit by bit.

Raw Materials - Carefully selected

We want to use only the very best ingredients for our products and therefore select them with great care. Our favourite is the Californian almond. Only this type is 100% sweet and contains no bitter substances, which is crucial for the taste of our products.

But we start before that - with the selection of our suppliers. We only work with companies that are members of the Almond Board of California. The Board has been setting up sustainability programmes since 2009. Caroline, our Managing Director, and Dirk, our Head of Product Development & Technology, visited the suppliers to ensure the quality of the almonds and the conditions in which they are grown.

Our high standards also apply to all other raw materials. Our coconut oil, for example, comes from selected plantations, and its traceability is guaranteed.

Creating transparency and providing clarity

We have our ecological footprint calculated by ClimatePartner. The calculation includes both our direct and our indirect emissions, which are generated along our supply chain, for example, or by our employees' travel or waste disposal, to name just a few items. This allows us to identify potential savings and develop measures to achieve our sustainability goals.

In addition, we have had the ecological footprint of Simply V products assessed by the Swiss environmental organisation Eaternity.

Eaternity rates products in four categories with a maximum of three stars, namely

• Climate
• Animal welfare
• Water
• Rainforest

Simply V products always received the best rating for "climate", "animal welfare" and "rainforest": three stars each. With "Water" it was a little different because of the almond content: while the Gourmet Slices received three stars, the other products - Gourmet Spread and Gourmet Grated - received one star.