Our Group Policies

Biodiversity is the diversity of the living world: the species, the environments that shelter them, and their interactions. Humans, forests, micro-organisms in the soil, a pond, a few square centimeters of grass at the foot of a tree in the city… Biodiversity is everywhere.

At Bel, we know that our operations can affect it: from dairy cow feed to the packaging of our products and our factories. We are highly dependent on biodiversity and its state of preservation. That’s why we strive to protect and promote it.

Through our Biodiversity policy, co-built with WWF-France, we formalize the commitments and ambitious objectives with set for ourselves on our whole value chain, “from farm to fork” to preserve, valorize and restore biodiversity.

 

Effectively the earth’s green lung, forests are home to 80% of the world’s biodiversity and they help support the needs of 1.6 billion people[1]. Yet 13 million hectares of forests disappear each year.
At Bel, we are committed to helping preserve forests and natural ecosystems. We have in particular backed field projects in Brazil and Malaysia and signed the Cerrado Manifesto Statement of Support.
Through our Global Forest and natural ecosystems Policy, jointly developed with the WWF France, we are seeking to strengthen our efforts by taking action on the raw materials we use directly and indirectly, to ensure that they do not contribute to deforestation. These include the soy and palm meal used in dairy cow feed, the plant-based oils in some of our recipes, and the paper and cardboard in our packaging.

[1] Source: the WWF France website – https://www.wwf.fr/champs-daction/foret

We collect nearly two billion liters of milk each year from 2,500 dairy-producer partners in 10 supply basins around the world.

To reduce the environmental impact of our dairy supply chain, we have been working with the WWF France since 2012, and jointly developed Bel’s Global Sustainable Upstream Dairy Charter. It guides our evolving practices and those of our dairy producers to 2025, notably in the areas of pasture grazing, local and sustainable animal feed, and the deployment of innovative social programs for all our partner farmers.

Action plans, tailored to local conditions, are being progressively rolled out in all our dairy basins to build a dairy production industry — together — that is respectful of humans and animals and preserves the planet’s resources.

We work with all partner farmers to ensure dairy cow welfare.

Existing local and international regulation and practices are already followed at our partner farms, which comply with the “Five Freedoms” defined by the World Organization for Animal Health. But the Bel Group wants to go further.

Through our Animal Welfare Charter, developed with experts from the CIWF (Compassion In World Farming), an international NGO that specializes in animal welfare, we have established best dairy farming practices to be implemented by all our partner producers in all our milk collection basins by 2025. The application of these best practices will be certified by an independent third-party at all our partner farms.

The single-serving portion has been our signature product format since the creation of The Laughing Cow® cheese in 1921. Each year, 19 billion Bel portions are sold throughout the world.
Our product packaging plays a vital role. It preserves product taste and wholesomeness, enables easy transport and forges ties to our consumers.
Well aware of the environmental challenges posed by packaging, we have put action plans into place to reduce packaging’s impact at each step in the lifecycle of our products, from the design phase to managing the waste. Further, we are helping to develop sustainable supply chains and waste-sorting industries as part of a circular economy.
81% of our packaging is currently recycling-ready, and we have committed to achieving 100% of recycling-ready and/or biodegradable packaging by 2025.

Bel Group is committed to creating a model open to diversity and inclusion, both internally and externally, for greater social cohesion, well-being and performance.

This is why diversity and inclusion play an essential role in Bel’s “Nurture” social model, whose main objective is to help each employee grow and develop the commitment of all.

Our Sustainable Purchasing Charter is an integral part of our Corporate Social Responsibility and aims to set out Bel’s commitments to its partners in relation to environmental, social and business ethics issues.