Client: FELFEL
Project team: Thomas Kägi, Tanja Laube
Services: AdvancedLCA, life cycle assessment, environmental consulting by speciality: food and renewable materials
Year: 2022-2023
FELFEL supplies over 800 fridges in Swiss offices with fresh meals, snacks and drinks several times a week. The company has set itself ambitious targets for reducing its climate footprint. In order to take targeted measures, it asked Carbotech to carry out various analyses.
The current state of FELFEL was measured at company level with an operational balance sheet and the hotspots of environmental and climate impact were identified. Energy consumption, transport (with own vehicles and from third-party companies), the purchase of goods and services, property, plant and equipment, commuter traffic and business trips as well as waste were analysed. The “climate handprint” was also determined, i.e. the amount of CO2eq that was avoided by taking measures such as donating menus. Based on the results, FELFEL launched the “Big 5” action plan with the aim of reducing climate emissions by 30% by 2026.
Food calculator
The food purchased accounts for the majority of FELFEL’s climate footprint. In order to be able to estimate the climate impact of a dish as early as the recipe development stage, Carbotech supported FELFEL in creating a food climate calculator. This can be used to calculate the climate emissions per ingredient and per menu. The latter information is also available to customers in the FELFEL app and helps them to reduce their individual emissions.
Disposable or reusable?
Packaging and the associated transport also contribute to the carbon footprint. Using a life cycle assessment, Carbotech calculated and compared the environmental and climate footprint of four different packaging options for FELFEL. Parameters such as packaging materials, weight, transport and washing all played a role.
