Sustaining our values. Designing the future.

Uelzen, July 2022 – The Uelzena Group has published its seventh sustainability report with the title “Sustaining our values. Designing the future.” for the 2021 business year. It reports on the key developments in the five action fields of company, products, production, employees and social and regional responsibility. The exclusively online report is published annually and is based on international GRI standards (Global Reporting Initiative) according to the “core” option. The 2021 GRI index and associated key figures are available on the website to download as a PDF.

Holistic view of greenhouse gas emissions

The Uelzena Group is continually working on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in production. At its four production sites, the group continually invests in energy-efficient processes and environmentally friendly technologies. To reduce emissions all the way along the value chain, it is essential to focus on the upstream processes – specifically milk production. With the aim of decreasing avoidable emissions in this area, a joint project was initiated in Lower Saxony to enable a large-scale investigation into the milk's carbon footprint. At the same time, Uelzena is implementing a method to establish the greenhouse gas emissions of their individual products and processes, thereby revealing specific potential for improvement.

Focus on sustainable milk production

Incorporating sustainability aspects with regard to the primary ingredient of milk holds an especially high priority for Uelzena as a milk-processing company. The QM Dairy Sustainability Tool provides a practical method to investigate sustainability aspects at the milk production level. It follows a broad approach incorporating economic factors and criteria relating to ecology, social issues and animal welfare. Uelzena has been involved with this industry solution since the start. A second survey round of the dairy farmers was completed in the reporting year with a positive participation rate of 66 percent. The results were used to develop online training for the dairy farms. 

Responsibility for the community and our region

In addition to its responsibility for the 790 employees, the group considers the regional procurement of agricultural raw materials, contracting local service providers and contributing to the region’s quality of life, to be relevant sustainability topics. In the reporting year, therefore, 94 percent of the raw ingredient milk was procured from within a radius of 150 km of our sites and 17 percent of services were provided by local business partners and providers within a radius of 50 km of our site locations. The majority of all donations benefit children and youth projects. Volunteer work is also encouraged and the group financially supports the organisations and facilities with which its employees are actively involved. 

For further information on the online sustainability report 2021:
https://www.uelzena.de/en/sustainability/