After reaching the milestone of making 100% of its packaging widely recyclable earlier this year, Weetabix has now set its sights on reducing its carbon footprint.
It’s just one of the many targets the Weetabix Food Company has now set itself as laid out in 2023 Sustainability Reportin which the business has shared the latest updates on progress against its Change for Even Better strategy.
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the launch of the sustainability strategy that has been designed to enable Weetabix achieve an ultimate target of 20% reduction of Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2025, per tonne of product. According to its latest report, the business is on track to hit this goal.
Weetabix’s Change for Even Better sustainability strategy is focused on four pillars – sourcing, product, operational, and social. The company has also been working to develop its Science Based Targets which it now expects to be set by the end of the year.
Sally Abbott, managing director at Weetabix Food Company UK & Ireland said: “I am delighted that we passed the important milestone of making 100% of our packaging recyclable this year.”
In the report, Weetabix outlines how by increasing the recycled content of Weetabix On the Go bottles to 51%, the team has reduced its carbon footprint by 8%. Meanwhile, by reducing the thickness of board used to make its cereal cartons, the company has achieved up to 20% footprint reduction across the range.
Another significant achievement is in changing the paper wrap that protects its Weetabix biscuits within the box. This wrap is lined with a thin plastic coating to help protect and comply with food contact safety standards.
“By January 2024, we will have reduced the coating thickness down from 0.87 grams to 0.35 grams, representing a 59% reduction in material used,” reads the report. This will act to save more than 200 tonnes of plastic each year while ensuring the wrap is accepted in UK curbside recycling.
The company is now focused on reducing the carbon footprint of its packaging by 15%.
Elsewhere in the report, Weetabix is now working towards net zero carbon wheat and boasts that today, only 100% British wheat is used to make Weetabix Original – with 4 million acres of British countryside ‘farmed sustainably to grow Weetabix wheat.’ In fact, all wheat used in Weetabix Original is sourced from farms at a maximum distance of 50 miles from its Northamptonshire factory.
In another first, Weetabix is now profiling farmers from its Growers Group, enabling customers to scan a QR code to learn more about the journey their cereal makes from field to spoon via an interactive traceability microsite.
By refreshing its packaging in this way, the company is seeking to make consumers more aware of the support Weetabix is lending to British farming and sustainable farming.
