Apetit updates its corporate responsibility programme – the target is to reduce emissions by 75 per cent by 2025

Apetit Plc, press release 25 March 2021 at 9:00 a.m.

Apetit Group is updating its corporate responsibility programme and making commitments including a 75 per cent reduction in emissions* from its own operations and transitioning to 100 per cent recyclable packaging materials**.

In its products, Apetit relies on domestic raw-materials, vegetables and local fish. The corporate responsibility programme is based on sustainable food choices: Through its operations, Apetit wants to contribute to a food supply chain that supports the well-being of people and the environment.

“As a food industry company, we have the opportunity and the obligation to make an impact: food-related consumption habits and choices play a significant role in promoting sustainable development and thereby reducing our climate impacts,” says Esa Mäki, CEO of Apetit Group.

Towards ambitious emission targets through renewable energy and energy efficiency

Apetit Group aims to achieve a 75 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2025. The Group will significantly increase the proportion of renewables in its energy consumption while developing its energy efficiency.

“We will increase our emission reduction target to reflect our growing ambition. We have already started using electricity produced from wind power at all of our production plants. In addition to developing our energy efficiency, we will also increase the proportion of steam and heat produced from renewable resources,” says Sanna Väisänen, Director, Corporate Communications and Sustainability at Apetit.

Apetit will continue to invest in sustainable packaging solutions: all Apetit product packaging sold through retail channels will be recyclable by 2025.

“We have already made our packaging thinner, which has enabled us to significantly reduce our plastic consumption. In addition to 100 per cent recyclability, we want to reduce the environmental impacts of our packaging by increasing the use of renewable packaging materials,” Väisänen adds.

Domestic ingredients, local fish and sustainable cultivation methods play a key role

In its frozen products, Apetit uses more than 80 per cent domestic ingredients, most of which are sustainably cultivated vegetables sourced directly from the company’s contract farmers. The continuous development of sustainable cultivation methods plays an important role in Apetit’s value chain.

“We will continue our long-term efforts related to the development of cultivation methods. We are committed to the development of cultivation practices that support natural soil fertility and carbon farming as well as providing training to our contract farmers on these practices,” Väisänen explains.

In addition to plant-based food solutions, Apetit supports increasing the use of domestic fish amongst Finnish consumers and is committed to increasing the proportion of domestic local fish to 20 per cent of all fish used by the company. The domestic fish, that Apetit uses, has also positive impacts on curbing eutrophication of water systems.

“Local waters are an integral aspect of our environmental responsibility. We intend to increase the use of local fish particularly with regard to fish species that have been perceived to be of lesser value, such as roach and herring. The local fish we used in 2020 removed phosphorus from domestic bodies of water in an amount that, according to a rough estimate, would have led to the growth of approximately 60,000 bucketfuls of blue-green algae.

Apetit’s corporate responsibility programme in its entirety: apetit.fi/en/responsibility-programme/

*Includes Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions in accordance with the GHG Protocol.
**Includes the packaging materials of Apetit products sold through retail channels.

For further information, please contact:

Sanna Väisänen, Director, Corporate Communications and Sustainability, tel. +358 10 402 4041

Apetit is a food industry company firmly rooted in Finnish primary production. Our operations are based on a unique and sustainable value chain: we create well-being with vegetables by offering tasty food solutions that make daily life easier. We also produce high-quality vegetable oils and rapeseed expellers for feeding stuff, and trade grain on the international markets. Apetit Plc's shares are listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. In 2020, Apetit Group's net sales were EUR 293 million.