TOGETHER

for Carbon Labelling

The Initiative for more CO₂e-Transparency in the Food Industry

The Initiative for more CO₂e-Transparency

in the Food Industry

Our independent consortium from science and industry has the following goals:

Establish a scientific advisory board to develop comparative standards for CO₂e transparency in the food industry. 

Develop an industry standard for transparent collection and communication of the CO₂e footprint of a product.

Communicate the importance of product-related CO₂ emissions to the public, politicians, consumers and companies.

„We enable consumers to make CO₂e-conscious purchases“.

With the initiative Together for Carbon Labelling – TCL for short – companies in the food industry are joining forces for more CO₂e transparency. The aim of our initiative is to create an industry-wide standard for transparent communication of the CO₂e emissions of a food product. In doing so, we want to simplify the purchasing decision process for environmentally conscious consumers and support companies in identifying and reducing their CO₂e consumption.

ABOUT THE INITIATIVE

Our Vision 

„Because we care about the future of our environment and our food.“

We are committed to ensuring that the climate impact of food is labelled in a simple and transparent manner. In this way, we are laying the foundation for reducing the food industry’s CO₂e footprint along the entire value chain.

BECOME PART OF THE VISION

The Mission

„We want to help shape the future of the food industry in a sustainable way.“

We take responsibility and want to do our part to combat the climate crisis. We have no time to lose, urgent action is needed to meet the Paris climate targets. Together with our members, we want to communicate the importance of uniform communication of product-related CO₂ emissions to the public, politicians, consumers and other companies. In the future, we want to expand the successful pioneering work of the participating companies in Germany to an EU-wide standard so that the CO₂ footprint of our food decreases. 

Foundations

We believe that our endeavour to establish an industry-wide standard requires a strong community. This means that to have the greatest impact, we need to bring together policy actors, consumers and business. That’s why we’re building our alliance of diverse companies, starting from different points – but committed to a common goal:

CO₂-Transparency.

BEHIND THE INITIATIVE

Starting in Germany, we’re working together to change the European food standard.

Started as an industry consortium with mymuesli, FRoSTA, Nestlé Germany and Oatly, COBIOM and its scientific experts develop an industry-wide standard for the transparent collection and communication of a product’s CO₂e emissions. 

The more companies participate, the greater our impact.

8

Founding members

1

Common goal

What drives our members

What motivates us to change the future of the food industry for good.

„If we want to achieve a more conscious awareness of CO₂ in food, we need more than just one food manufacturer in the market who is committed to this. It needs as many companies as possible working together – and a meaningful standard that supports consumers with comprehensible decision-making principles for every purchase“.
Wenke Blumenroth
Head of Corporate Communication mymuesli
„At FRoSTA, we have been calculating the CO₂e footprints of all our products for many years and publish them on our website. However, printing these footprints on the packaging has not made sense for us so far, as there is no uniform calculation method. This should change so that consumers can consciously choose climate-friendly products when they shop. It’s not easy at all, but it’s absolutely necessary. And that is why we are happy to take on this task with our partners and external scientific advisors.“
Sebastian Bernbacher
Marketing Director FRoSTA
„In order to actively protect the climate at the POS, uniform standards are needed with regard to CO2 labeling and the calculation of product life cycle assessments. Then consumers will be able to make a conscious decision about climate protection at the point of purchase, and we as a company will be able to live up to our responsibility with regard to climate protection.
Kim „Kiwi“ Paulsen
CSR & Life Cycle Analyst
erdbaer
„We need a uniform standard for mandatory CO₂e labeling. UN scientists confirm that switching to a more plant-based diet is one of the most effective ways to reduce climate impact. The CO₂e footprint of food products
footprint of food must be comparable and communicated transparently so that consumers can make more sustainable purchasing decisions.“
Tobias Goj
General Manager Oatly Deutschland
„Climate and environmental protection know no boundaries and time is running out. In addition to our own efforts, we also want to help consumers make more climate-friendly choices. The CO₂e labeling of food according to scientifically sound criteria can help. In the long term, we would like to see food labeled not only according to its CO₂e emissions, but holistically in terms of its environmental impact – for example, how much water or land it uses in production. To achieve this, we are also advocating for a common European methodology for calculating environmental impact.“
Anke Stübing
Head of Sustainability Nestlé Deutschland
„With TCL, we are bringing together all the key stakeholders in the food industry to create market conditions that make sustainable business practices a profitable economic advantage. Our goal is to have the entire value chain work together with experts and NGOs in this initiative to achieve a goal that companies cannot achieve alone.“
Paul Hoffmann
Projekt lead TCL and Managing Director of COBIOM
„We owe our stakeholders transparency and honesty with regard to our environmental impact. To ensure that customers are no longer misled by green-washed packaging and products on supermarket shelves in the future, we need uniform CO₂ labeling on all products. This starts with a balance sheet and comparability of all environmental impacts and goes through the reduction of emissions to showing compensation calculations. This is the only way that responsible consumers will be able to make sensible decisions in the future – for the planet and for themselves.“
Kristin Hansen
Sustainability Projects & CSR The Nu Company
„Change climate instead of climate change! Veganz has been making that possible for 10 years now. We make sure that thousands of (refrigerated) shelves are always stocked with delicious vegan and sustainable products, and that these in turn have a transparent sustainability score: It quickly became clear to us that consumers need and want to better understand the impact of their consumption in order to make more conscious purchasing decisions. That’s why, since 2019, we have been one of the first in the industry to make sustainability directly visible on the product packaging of our items. In doing so, we are disclosing the life cycle assessment of each item while setting a new future standard for transparency in food production.“
Moritz Möller
Head of Marketing and Product Veganz
„We want to create transparency so that
customers to eat more consciously and in a climate-friendly way. Eating in a way that conserves resources
has a huge potential to counteract climate change. Therefore, an easy-to-understand CO2e label for food is an important first step to enable consumers to make more sustainable purchasing decisions.“
Nils Herrmann
COO and Managing
Director DACH
HelloFresh
„Transparency and labelling that is as simple as possible are crucial so that consumers can decide quickly and correctly. GermanZero is happy to provide independent expertise in this area. Climate protection can and must be transparent and low-threshold. We see that politics is again very ponderous here and are now taking the reins of action into our own hands. For this reason, GermanZero is coordinating the activities of this cooperation with clear guidelines for the participating companies.“
Dr. Julian Zuber
CEO GermanZero e.V.
„At FRoSTA, we have been calculating the CO₂e footprints of all our products for many years and publish them on our website. However, printing these footprints on the packaging has not made sense for us so far, as there is no uniform calculation method. This should change so that consumers can consciously choose climate-friendly products when they shop. It’s not easy at all, but it’s absolutely necessary. And that is why we are happy to take on this task with our partners and external scientific advisors.“
Sebastian Bernbacher
Marketing Director FRoSTA

Is your company ready to commit to more CO₂e transparency?

Then join our initiative!

Become part of our vision of a better future for the food industry in Germany and Europe.

Our members

We work together for more CO₂e transparency in the food industry.

Your questions.

Our answers.

In order to ensure the quality of the CO₂e footprint collection methods of a product, we work closely with GermanZero and their experts on the topic. Furthermore, we are installing a scientific advisory board within the initiative, which will oversee the development and introduction of the resulting standard.

Each company has only one vote in decisions within the initiative, regardless of turnover and size of the company. Furthermore, organisations such as GermanZero and the scientific advisory board are entitled to one vote.

The aim of the initiative is to develop a standard for comparison and communication that can be applied in the long term. Furthermore, the aim is to regularly evaluate whether the standard is being applied correctly by the companies. The form this evaluation will take is being worked out together with the scientific advisory board.

Our member companies came together of their own accord to create this initiative and actively sought independent quality control partners in GermanZero and COBIOM to make this initiative a reality. The motivations of the individual companies can be seen in the quotes from the company representatives above.