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We’re concentrating on the areas where we can have the biggest impact – inside our facilities and beyond.

In our manufacturing facilities, we’re focusing on reducing our total energy use. 
Our Loerrach plant in Germany, in which we produce the famous Milka chocolate, is an outstanding example for our European initiatives. This plant has developed an integrated energy management system aiming at significantly reducing our total energy consumption. The concept is based on two pillars:
- First the integration of a "combined heat and power unit" (also known as Cogeneration), where we use a gas operated engine to produce electricity for the plant, using the "waste"-heat of this motor to supply the plant's heating system.
- Second the integration of a new chilling system with environmental-friendly and efficient technology for air conditioning and production process cooling. 

We also use energy efficient systems in our plant in Fallingbostel, Germany, where we make products like Philadelphia cream cheese and Micaroli products, and in our facility in Banbury, United Kingdom, where we produce our delicious Kenco coffee.

We’re getting creative with our coffee grounds, too. By burning them, we produce energy and provide power for our plants in Hemelingen and Elmshorn, Germany, and at our plant in Banbury, UK. Not only does this boost energy efficiency, it keeps our coffee grounds waste out of landfills.

Another bright idea involves how we use LED lighting in our manufacturing facilities. Since LED lighting uses semiconductor technology, it reduces more than 50 percent of the energy consumption related to light. After successfully running a pilot program using LED lighting in several plants in Spain and Germany, we switched to LED light devices in our production facility in Halle (Belgium) and an office building in Germany. And we plan to expand the program to other European facilities in 2011.

Heating our biscuit ovens uses a lot of energy – about 50 percent of a manufacturing facility’s total energy consumption. The high heat is necessary to extract water from our biscuit dough. So we searched for more efficient ways to bake our delicious biscuits. We converted the ovens in several of our facilities in France to use alternative heat sources, like infrared burners. And we’ve cut our energy consumption by 10-15 percent per oven, including in our plant in Cestas, where we produce our beloved LU Petit Ecolier biscuits, and our facility in Herentals, where we make our delicious Prince and Liga biscuits.

We’re continuing to find and test more energy efficient programs and processes like these to eventually use in all our European plants.

Since teamwork and cooperation are crucial to success, we’re also working with our business partners, suppliers, industry organizations, governments and consumers to reduce, reuse and recycle. 

Outside of our plants, we’re finding ways to transport raw materials and products more efficiently to save truck fuel, cut carbon dioxide emissions and reduce traffic. Since 1993, we’ve shipped green coffee beans from Bremen to our Berlin, Germany, roasting facility by rail instead of by truck. In total, that has cut out 100,000 truck trips and reduced fuel consumption and our carbon footprint by two-thirds, as well as eliminated approximately 35,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Since 1997, we’ve also been shipping green coffee beans from Bremen to Vienna, eliminating another 1,000 truck shipments per year.
In Austria, we’ve eliminated 400 truck shipments and are down to only 100 truck shipments per year – by moving chocolate products in refrigerated containers on railcars. This move helps us cut 250 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Less packaging = more resources
We constantly look for ways to improve our packaging – to cut waste, preserve natural resources and provide our consumers with even better experiences.

Our Kenco coffee brand has reduced its impact on the environment with Eco-Refill coffee packs. The nifty refillable pouches have cut the amount of packaging weight we produce by a remarkable 97 percent.  That means less waste in landfills. 
In addition, we’ve reduced the packaging weight of our Milka chocolate tablets by 60 percent, thanks to fewer package layers; 5.7 million fewer pounds (2,600 metric tons) in Europe.

And we’re finding even more ways to squeeze the last little bit out of our used packaging. In the UK and Sweden, we have successfully formed a partnership with TerraCycle to collect and recycle our used Tassimo T-Discs and Kenco Eco-Refill packs. TerraCycle is an innovative “upcycling” company that collects difficult-to- recycle packaging and turns it into fun and innovative products, like umbrellas, flower pots, coasters and even re-usable tote bags. We’ve already collected one million T-Discs from consumers in the UK and are looking to expand our efforts in the region.