Sustainability
We want to bake sustainability in every pizza product delivered by our brands. It makes our business more future-proof and creates value for our people, franchisees, customers and partners. We help our brands to get ahead on their sustainability journey and to realise their full potential. When our brands succeed and grow, they can continue to provide employment and make continuous efforts towards more sustainable operations.
Some of our brands have a longer legacy of pioneering sustainability work, while others are taking leaps in development or re-thinking what sustainable business means for their market and stakeholders. We are all united by The European Pizza Company (TEPC)’s culture of integrity and aspiration to unite leading sustainable local pizza brands.
In Double Materiality Assessment (DMA), we align business with sustainability, defining which Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) areas are relevant from the perspective of our impacts on the outside world, and financial risks and opportunities. Have a look at our current DMA here.
Planet
We need a healthy planet in order to serve tasty and nutritious food. That is why we take our responsibility towards the environment seriously, and strive to maximise the positive impacts of our operations. From sustainable and traceable production of ingredients to energy efficiency and certified packaging, we are conscious of our footprint on the climate and ecosystems.
Our target is to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions across the value chain by 2045. In 2024, TEPC and its companies emitted 176k tons of CO2e. 80% originates from purchased goods in Scope 3, with meat and dairy products accounting for 38% of total footprint. A robust climate roadmap is being developed, including first wins in 2024 of 3822 tonnes of CO2e reduced by implementing electric freezing in our Dutch pizza dough factory, as well as initiating Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of pizza dough products.
People & Human Rights
Together with franchisees, we take care of thousands of people working in our companies and restaurants. This means responsible franchisee stewardship, embracing diversity, equity and inclusion, and maintaining healthy, safe and fair working conditions. Our responsibility extends to ethical marketing, promoting sustainable consumption, and data protection. Paying increasing attention to consumer health, our companies work to eliminate additives, to offer transparent nutritional information and non-red meat options, and to run experiments ranging from high-protein pizza to vegetable doughs.
As part of human rights due diligence, TEPC works with eight areas: living wage, safe working conditions, food safety, child labour, privacy, inclusive business practices, professional training and development, and work-life balance. These have varying emphases for own employees, customers, people in restaurants and value chain workers. Human rights action plans in mid-term horizon are being devised to improve impacts.
Governance & Compliance
Beyond meeting regulatory requirements for good governance and denouncing grey economy, we report openly and transparently about all our operations. In line with Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), TEPC’s ESG data is consolidated in Orkla ASA’s annual sustainability statement, found here.
Setting robust targets and building a solid infrastructure for ESG data are key areas of development for TEPC companies. We are working to make sustainability more formalized and systematic part of business intelligence. Going forward, we aim to share more comprehensive details on our performance and progress.
The way ahead
As part of Orkla ASA, we set high standards on ethical business practices for the companies we manage and spread this ethos to future brands acquired. TEPC is also a member of the UN Global Compact (UNGP) initiative, and we for example participate UNGP’s Business & Human Rights Accelerator Programme.
Best results are achieved together in collaboration with our brands, food producers, consumers, civil society organisations and alike. If you have ideas or questions about our sustainability work, click ’Contact’ to reach our ESG team.
Code of Conduct
Our stakeholders must be able to trust that everything we do is grounded in sound business ethics. In everyday work, we live by these principles.
Orkla ASA’s rules for good business practice give us clear ethical guidelines for how to behave and conduct our operations.
Comply with laws and regulation
Always good corporate governance and fair competition
Care for people and the environment
Never corruption, grey economy or conflicts of interest
Act with integrity and ethics
Ensure privacy and transparency
Highlights 2024
176k
Tons of CO2e emitted
53%
Regenerative wheat in pizza dough production
37%
Women in management teams
10%
ESG inclusion in bonus schemes
4000+
Hours of professional training and development
2/3
Pizza chains with FSC-certified pizza boxes
80%
Seafood MSC-certified
≈70%
Supplier Code of Conduct signatory rate
Supplier Code of Conduct
We work closely together with our suppliers to reduce negative impacts and to create positive ripple effects. To ensure their commitment to sustainability, we employe among other means TEPC’s Supplier Code of Conduct. It serves as a vehicle for dialogue around ESG in supply chains.
Suppliers’ performance is assessed on case-by-case basis, and we want to develop together through mutual support and learning.
