Here is an example from Austria how we implement our global sustainability policies "on the ground" - step by step, with constant progress towards ambitious goals.
Our efforts to systematically reduce and, as far as possible, eliminate residual waste at the Breitenbrunn chocolate factory began in 2001 with the installation of a packsaver machine, to recover the contents of damaged packages. In 2005 we found a buyer for our wafer scrap - which until then had been composted - who now turns it into farm animal feed. For the ensuing reduction in residual waste, we received the "Goldener Mistkäfer" (Golden Dung Beetle) Award of the Burgenland provincial waste authority.
But we did not stop there. In 2007 we identified additional external recycling possibilities in Austria, in neighbouring Hungary and in the Czech Republic. In the same year, we installed a multi-compartment waste press for four types of waste. By means of a training and information campaign for our associates, we managed to substantially increase the separation of plastic and paper waste, and thereby to reduce residual waste by 70 %. The remaining residual waste is incinerated and used for electrical power generation.
Thus we achieved our target of "zero landfill" already in 2008, making a significant contribution to the protection of the environment and to our overall ecological objectives.
100 % renewable energy
At the front end of our production chain, we have already shifted our whole electricity consumption to renewable sources: 95 % comes from hydro power, 4 % from wind and solar power, and 1 % from biomass.
Breitenbrunn is the first and, so far, the only Mars site which covers all its energy needs from renewable sources.
