Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG, parent company of Ritter Sport, is officially recognised as a CO2-neutral company
Ritter Sport, the family-owned German chocolate maker, known for its chunky square chocolate bars packed with tasty ingredients, has achieved another huge, sustainability milestone and is now a climate-neutral company.
Ritter Sport’s CO2 neutrality has been verified and validated retroactively by independent external testing body, TÜV Nord Cert GmbH. The calculations on which the status is based were made in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol/ISO 14064.
Ben Daniels, MD Ritter Sport UK & Ireland says of the achievement: “We are extremely proud that Ritter Sport is now a CO2-neutral company, another huge milestone in our brand’s sustainability journey. Our CO2-neutral status is the result of decades-long passion for sustainability and the environment, from the Ritter family owners, throughout every level of our organisation, permeating every function. That passion is at the very heart of our culture.
“We know our customers and consumers alike, actively seek out brands and businesses who have sustainability excellence and transparency in their value chains, and who endeavour to do their part on key societal issues such as climate change. It’s often not the cheapest or quickest way of operating a business, but it is the right way, and we are all about doing the right things to create really good chocolate.”
Ritter Sport started its journey to climate neutrality almost 20 years ago with the aim to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions generated at the company’s sites in Germany, as well as the other emissions over which the company has a direct influence.
For example, since 2002 Ritter Sport has sourced the energy for its production sites solely from renewable resources. The company has even built its own power and heating plant on site which now covers almost 70 per cent of its heat requirements and 40 per cent of the electricity requirements at its site in Waldenbuch, Germany.
Where Ritter Sport is not currently able to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions or they’re unavoidable, it has provided compensatory measures for the remaining emissions. These compensation measures include purchasing climate-protection certificates; these are gold standard certificates, the most stringent standard which includes investment in a wind farm and working with plant-for-the-planet to plant at least two trees for every tonne of CO2 needing to be compensated.
Our own climate protection project
Whilst the majority of companies striving to be climate-neutral purchase external climate-protection certificates, doing it within your company’s own value chain is extremely unique and something Ritter Sport is extremely proud to be working on using its very own cocoa plantation in Nicuaguara, EL CACAO. One of the largest cocoa plantations in the world, around half of the 2,500-hectare site is uncultivated forest left so that nature and wildlife can thrive. The rest of the site is home to over 1.7 million cocoa trees. EL CACAO has been recognised as a gold standard climate protection project. Ritter Sport’s aim in the not too distant future is to generate its own climate-protection certificates from the site itself. Watch this square space!
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