What sustainability means to us

Sustainability is part of our identity. Our pharmaceuticals and natural skin care are not only good for you. We are striving to make our business even more future-proof and sustainable and care for the climate.

We take our responsibility seriously

We are a sustainable company and have received many awards for our dedication. We promote biodynamic agriculture, healthy soils and equitable relationships with our cultivation partners worldwide. Just as biodiversity is of vital importance to us, so is having a comprehensive climate protection strategy. In both these areas, we take a proactive approach to our responsibility. We act in a way that is socially responsible, ecologically sound and economically successful.

Moderation and resilience

We conduct our business with a sense of moderation in all we do. We only want to take as much as we can give back. In fact, we aim to give even more back than we take – that’s what sustainability is all about. In some areas of our business we are already doing very well, and in other areas we are working intensively to improve. Sustainability has a lot to do with resilience. As a company, we are building resilience at different levels. Our biodynamic gardens and raw material projects around the world support the resilience of soils and local ecosystems. We also build resilience on a social level, by treating our long-standing cultivation partners with respect, paying fair wages and supporting social projects.

My personal approach to sustainability is that the more resilient we are, the more sustainable we are.
Dr. Stefan Siemer, Head of Sustainability
98
percent of all generated waste is recycled
100
percent electricity from renewable sources is used in our own buildings at Weleda production facilities in Switzerland, Germany and France
60
percent of our packaging is made of glass

Doing even more for climate protection

When Weleda was founded in 1921, it was clear from the outset that the way we do business should be in harmony with people and nature. We are working to improve biodiversity and the health of the natural environment. Protecting the climate is part of this. We are working to do this by sourcing our electricity from renewable energies and supporting initiatives for healthy soils. We also developed a seed strategy for more biodiversity and are advancing the use of recycled packaging.

How we protect the climate

  • We produce with 100 percent green electricity in our own production facitities in Germany, Switzerland and France.
  • Biodynamic agriculture increases humus in the soil, which stores large amounts of carbon. That is why we are increasing the biodynamic share of our certifiable plant-based raw materials.
  • We now use recycled PET bottles (rPET) in our Baby Care range. This alone reduces our CO2 emissions by 250 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. We will continue to significantly increase the proportion of recycled material used in our packaging.
  • Our aim is to reduce our energy intensity (energy consumption divided by production volume) by 2.5 percent every year.
  • We are developing a global sustainable mobility and logistics concept.
  • We are creating transparency about the true costs of our most important plant-based raw materials, including climate impacts.

As part of our true cost accounting (TCA) we are assessing the differences between organic farming and conventional farming. This involves looking at CO2 emissions, CO2 sequestration, water consumption, water pollution, energy consumption, erosion and soil formation. The comparisons reveal that organic and biodynamic farming have a much better true cost balance than conventional farming.

Nature is asking us to be a good partner.
Ueli Hurter, Biodynamic Farmer and Member of the Weleda Board of Directors

What is true cost accounting?

True cost accounting (TCA) reveals the “hidden costs” of a company’s operations. In addition to direct production costs, the environmental and social impacts are calculated and included in the product price and balance sheets.

We want a world that is better with Weleda

Is it enough for us to produce fewer emissions or increase the recycled content of our packaging? We don’t think so. We know there are many examples that a world with Weleda is better than without Weleda. For instance, through biodynamic farming and our commitment to healthy soils. In other areas, such as packaging and climate protection, we still have work to do, and have set new ambitious targets. We are doing all we can to ensure that the overall balance of our economic activity becomes more positive.

Recognition of our sustainability commitment 

We are proud to have received numerous awards:

  • Sustainable Beauty Awards

  • Green Brands Award

  • Swiss Ethics Award

  • German Sustainability Award

  • Good Brand Award for sustainable packaging

  • Numerous other awards for our certified natural cosmetics

More Articles

Weleda receives B Corp certification

Weleda has been committed to nature and society for 100 years. The international non-profit B Lab has now certified that we are making the world a better place through our corporate culture.

How Weleda is changing the world

Weleda is now a certified B Corp. In this interview with Dr. Stefan Siemer, Head of Sustainability at Weleda, we speak about the certification process, the high standards of the issuing organisation, and the reasons that led us to take this step.

We care for biodiversity around the world

In producing our natural skin care and pharmaceutical products, we treat the earth’s resources with care at every step – starting with the seeds that we plant. In doing so, we are protecting biodiversity and nurturing healthy soils around the world.

We strive to continuously improve our packaging

Why do we use plastic packaging? Because so far, there’s no perfect solution for all our products. But we are working hard to make our packaging even better, to reduce its impact on the environment.

Our raw materials are sourced ethically and sustainably

We are committed to ensuring that our raw materials are ethically sourced. That’s why we have been certified since 2018 by the Union for Ethical BioTrade.

Why do we use palm oil?

We are committed to the sustainable cultivation of palm oil