In good Taste: Fuchs Gruppe’s climate action recipe

About Fuchs Gruppe: From Dissen to the world

Fuchs Gruppe is a family-run, mid-sized enterprise headquartered in Dissen, Lower Saxony. It’s one of the leading providers of spices and herbs with over 3,000 employees across four continents, supplying retailers, foodservice providers, and food processing industry for over 70 years.

Fuchs’s portfolio includes traditional spices and herbs, technological flavour solutions for industrial use, and international delicacies. In Germany, consumers recognise and trust established brands such as Fuchs, which stands for high product quality, sustainable value creation, and extraordinary taste.

The challenge: Complex supply chains, limited data

As part of its sustainability strategy, Fuchs set out to calculate and reduce its company-wide carbon emissions. This ambition came with several challenges:

• Limited data availability and quality, particularly its scope 3 emissions
• High complexity in carbon accounting along its global value chain
• Evolving and often unclear regulatory requirements

Against this backdrop, Fuchs chose to develop a clear roadmap for its climate strategy in collaboration with ClimatePartner.

The approach: Carbon footprint data management

The goal of the collaboration was to create transparency around the carbon emissions of the entire group. This would provide a solid foundation for reduction measures and the submission of science-based targets to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Together with ClimatePartner, Fuchs focused on three approaches:

• Structured collection and validation of relevant emissions data by experienced ClimatePartner experts
• Methodologically sound support in classifying and prioritising emission sources, especially in scope 3
• Provision of a clear project plan with defined milestones, responsibilities, and timelines

The results: Calculation, science-based targets

Based on this data, Fuchs Gruppe was able to calculate its Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF) for the first time in 2023, including FLAG-relevant emissions. This serves as the basis for prioritising reduction measures and submitting science-based targets to the SBTi.

Key outcomes

• Comprehensive Corporate Carbon Footprint for reporting year 2023 (including all scopes and FLAG emissions)
• Submission of short- and long-term climate targets to the SBTi, including FLAG targets

Next steps in climate action

• Annual update of the CCF to track progress
• Collection of primary data on raw materials in close cooperation with ClimatePartner to ensure high data quality
• Expansion of the decarbonisation strategy based on SBTi targets
• Long-term integration of climate action into business processes

With its CCF and a structured reduction roadmap, Fuchs Gruppe is consistently taking the next step towards decarbonising its operations and building a future-proof business model.
 
“Developing our first global Corporate Carbon Footprint was a demanding project. ClimatePartner impressed us with a clear methodology, structured approach, and open, collaborative partnership. The CCF was a crucial first step on our climate journey and in defining our climate targets. Only by fully understanding our emissions can we take meaningful steps toward climate action.”

– Rieke Pennekamp, Sustainability Manager