Offer more responsible products

In 2018, we set ourselves the target of 100% new ecodesigned products in 2025, and we have reached that goal! However, we want to continue to make progress. This is why in 2021 we set up an internal tool, the ValrhoScore, to measure the extent to which are our products are designed with environmental principles in mind.
Our new ambition is to give a score to all our products (not just the new ones) and ensure that each new product achieves
at least the average score by the end of 2022. Once all our products have been given scores, we can once again raise our requirements!

The eco-design of our packaging and recipes

The composition of the recipes, the ingredients, as well as the packaging and its materials, are today all guarantees of quality and responsibility for our stakeholders. Valrhona is working on the eco-design of its products to fully satisfy our customers while reducing our footprint on the environment and natural resources.

We thus act through the eco-design of our packaging and recipes for all new product developments. Our marketing, R&D, and purchasing teams must ensure that a number of criteria are respected with each new development.

RECIPES

• Length of the list of ingredients
• No additives or controversial ingredients
• Nutritional impact
• Level of societal and environmental risk of the sector from which each ingredient comes

PACKAGING

• Reduce weight (of packaging)
• Choose materials made from renewable and/or recycled resources
• Aim for 100% recyclable packaging

For example, the non-recyclable plastic cells used to package chocolate bonbons have been replaced by recyclable transparent cells containing 30% recycled materials. In 2023, the recyclable packaging rate rose again, from 83% to 86% compared to 2022, an increase of 3 points. In addition, we have replaced our synthetic colorants with ingredients that add color, such as beetroot juice or flower extracts, and the few flavorings we use are now natural.

The gifting range : doing better with less

By thinking about packaging’s recyclability from the design stage onwards, Valrhona has taken up a challenge as it launches its new Gifting range: Doing better but using less. This product range has been designed in line with our ambitions to achieve 100% recyclability by 2025.

The new boxes in this range (which includes 24 products) are entirely recyclable and sourced in Europe, in keeping with consumers’ increasing demand for sustainability and eco-design. The paper and cardboard come from FSC-certified sources, guaranteeing that they originate from sustainably managed forests. Adopting this approach has enabled Valrhona to cut back its environmental impact, as proven by standardized tests (Evaluation using ISO 14040 Life Cycle Assessment method).

Cardboard use has been reduced by 4 tons a year for this range of boxes, and plastic by 10 tons. Valrhona has also redesigned the boxes to convey its environmental commitments and values, embodied “by its B Corp certification”.

A new production line to cut back on packaging

In terms of the packaging required to ship Valrhona products, the carbon footprint has been reduced by 13 tonnes
between 2022 and 2023 (equivalent to 9,000 days of heating saved) thanks to the installation of a new packaging machine set up to create customized boxes for individual orders. This has helped to reduce the use of air cushions for packaging and, above all, to replace plastic tape with Kraft tape.