Packaging

Impact, risk, and opportunity management

We address our packaging related impacts, risks, and opportunities through our Sustainable Packaging Handbook and by implementing the Sustainable Packaging Initiative to achieve the targets in our Sustainability Plan.

Our material impacts, risks, and opportunities

According to our Double Materiality Assessment (DMA), “Resource use and circular economy” is a material topic. We have identified material impacts in our own operations as well as upstream and downstream value chains in relation to this topic.

Packaging impacts food safety and the quality of our products during transport. It also plays a critical role in informing and appealing to consumers. At the same time, packaging can have negative environmental impacts. Packaging is one of Lindt & Sprüngli’s main operational waste streams. Designing for recyclability and endeavoring to reduce material usage, both aim to contribute to our commitment to decreasing our environmental footprint. Lindt & Sprüngli also causes packaging waste in the downstream supply chain. This encompasses consumer-facing and non-consumer-facing materials. By developing and implementing new packaging solutions, we aim to reduce our negative impact on the environment.

Our related policies and documents

Our Sustainable Packaging Handbook is our internal guidance document for our subsidiaries and is also provided to co-packaging partners. The Handbook includes design standards and guidelines for improving the recyclability of our packaging. It provides guidance on material selection as well as on reporting requirements. The Handbook also integrates an internally developed recyclability assessment tool for our subsidiaries to locally assess the recyclability of their packaging using a “traffic light” approach. The tool is updated annually together with an external specialist company.

The Lindt & Sprüngli Sustainable Packaging Initiative

We address the environmental impact of our packaging through our Sustainable Packaging Initiative. This considers impacts throughout the life cycle of the packaging, from raw material sourcing to designing for recycling.¹

We integrate environmental criteria into the packaging design process in line with our Sustainable Packaging Handbook, along with other criteria, for instance related to food safety, quality, and cost. Changes in material composition to (re)design our packaging to make it recyclable, as well as to use recycled materials, are checked and approved by external laboratories and consultants, e.g., for external certification of sorting and recycling compatibility. Food safety aspects are analyzed via external research to ensure that new materials and packaging solutions do not negatively impact our chocolate products. To achieve machinability and fulfill production process requirements, we perform extensive production and transportation tests. We continuously and proactively challenge our product portfolio by considering ways to reduce packaging material weight and packaging waste in production and to reduce packaging destruction.

To achieve our five Sustainable Packaging Commitments (see graphic below), we are working to improve the packaging in which the products are sold to the customer (Consumer Units), that used to transport the products to the stores (Transportation Units), and that in which products are presented in the stores (Display Units).

For the Sustainable Packaging Initiative, we have several technical working groups, comprised of multinational internal experts, that collaborate to find solutions. Their main focus is to identify materials and technologies that can help us fulfill our commitments and maintain our standards. The teams are currently working on different packaging solutions, including twist-wrapping, block bottom bags, praliné trays, and flowpacks. Their goal is to exchange and utilize the learnings and results of the tests. These expert groups are considered control committees proposing new solutions.

To increase our knowledge of the design of recyclable packaging and to support fundamental research, we have joined multiple industry organizations (e.g., 4Evergreen, Ceflex, and the Sustainable Packaging Coalition) in recent years and have continued to engage with them in 2024.

Ongoing research and development (R&D)

In 2024, we continued our R&D activities, focusing in particular on circular design. We are carrying out long-term research on innovative, often paper-based packaging solutions for various applications, such as trays or wrappers. However, it can take many years before these are market-ready and scalable. Furthermore, we are continuing with extensive testing in our endeavors to redesign our block bottom bags to achieve a recyclable solution. We have made good progress but have not yet met our quality expectations.

We are cooperating with start-ups in the area of recyclable and biodegradable plastics and alternative materials to identify potential applications, such as functional coatings, with the aim of enabling new packaging solutions.

We will continue to conduct research and development, along with production testing, to drive progress through the next few years on key packaging-related issues. These include reducing the use of plastic and finding alternatives to non-recyclable composite materials and hard-to-recycle plastic wrappers and trays. For this, we partner with direct suppliers as well as with tier-2 suppliers to learn more about their new technologies and solutions.

Metrics and targets

Lindt & Sprüngli has set targets to manage and take steps to reduce its packaging-related negative environmental impact and its identified risks to support circularity.

Our five Sustainable Packaging Commitments to support the circular economy

Circularity performance

In 2024, 44.1% of our total packaging and 18% of plastic packaging were made from recycled materials. The increase, compared to 42.1% in 2023, was mainly driven by the increased usage of recycled paper content in our transportation packaging materials as well as the increased usage of recycled plastics, particularly for applications such as praliné trays. Nevertheless, finding alternative solutions that comply with strict food safety requirements remains challenging. This requires intense quality testing prior to implementing new materials.

Due to our efforts finding plastic replacements and introducing recycled content in various applications, we were able to reduce our virgin plastic consumption from 9.9% in 2023 to 9.5% in our total packaging in 2024.

We increased our share of packaging designed to be recyclable from 89.7% in 2023 to 91.4% in 2024. The share of plastic packaging designed to be recyclable rose from 53.9% to 61.1%. We implemented local projects in several subsidiaries, mostly by gradually phasing out non-recyclable plastics.

For further information on the methodology and calculation of the metrics mentioned above, also see the Lindt & Sprüngli reporting criteria.

¹While our Sustainable Packaging Initiative addresses Lindt & Sprüngli’s impacts along the complete packaging life cycle, it is important to note that the availability of functioning local infrastructure and markets for collecting, sorting, and recycling packaging material – as well as enhanced consumer behavior – must exist where our products are consumed for the objectives of our Sustainable Packaging Initiative to be realized. We classify a material as recyclable based on a developed collection and sorting infrastructure using state-of-the-art technology on an industrial scale.

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