Valora: Turning Climate Data Into Product Development
Valora Group partnered with Eaternity to bring climate transparency directly into its food product development processes, enabling teams to compare products and steer innovation toward lower-emission options.
Valora: Turning Climate Data Into Product Development
Valora Group is a European convenience, retail, and foodservice company operating around 2,800 points of sale at highly frequented locations across Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Through convenience formats such as k kiosk and avec, as well as a broad foodservice portfolio, Valora serves millions of customers every year with food products designed for everyday consumption.
To support its commitment to reducing emissions from private-label products by 50% by 2030, Valora partnered with Eaternity to bring climate transparency directly into its food product development processes. By integrating automated CO₂ calculations into internal recipe and product development tools, Valora enabled its teams to compare products, identify high-impact ingredients, and systematically steer innovation toward lower-emission options—across both retail assortments and foodservice offerings.
For me, the environment is of central importance because our food system—a fundamental pillar of every society—is both heavily dependent on functioning ecological foundations and at the same time has a significant impact on them.
— Gilles Puetz, Co-Lead Sustainability, Valora
Background: Multi-Format Retail and Foodservice Leader
Valora applies a multi-format strategy with 10 sales formats, a strong private label, and about 2,800 sales outlets at highly frequented locations in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.
Within its convenience retail portfolio, Valora operates brands including k kiosk and avec. In addition, Valora operates approximately 700 foodservice points of sale, including brands such as Brezelkoenig, Caffe Spettacolo, Ditsch, and BackWerk.
Across the organisation, food products are considered a central lever for climate impact.
The environment is of invaluable importance to me personally. It shapes our prosperity, but also my own wellbeing—whether in the mountains, by lakes, or in the forest, where I spend a large part of my free time and recharge.
— Gilles Puetz, Co-Lead Sustainability, Valora
Challenge: Product-Level Transparency for 2030 Goals
To reach its 2030 reduction target, Valora needed transparency on product emissions—especially within food categories where the footprint is driven by ingredients and recipes.
The key challenges were:
- Making the actual climate impact of products measurable across the value chain
- Creating comparability across products so teams could focus on the right levers
- Ensuring climate data is available in the day-to-day workflow of product and recipe development
Solution: Climate Data Embedded in Development Tools
Valora chose Eaternity because it offered a pragmatic approach: fast initial insights through automation, with the option for more detailed analysis when needed.
Eaternity was integrated into Valora's internal product development tooling so that recipe developers can see the CO₂ emissions of a new product directly—either based on validated data (if ingredients were used before) or automated estimates (for new ingredients). This information then flows into product selection decisions.
Key Actions
- Integrated CO₂ calculations into the product development tool for recipe developers
- Used validated ingredient data where available, and automated estimates for new ingredients
- Knowledge transfer through Eaternity's contribution at Valora's internal Sustainability Summit
Eaternity offered a pragmatic approach with sufficient automation—meaning fast initial insights without manual review—while still allowing for more detailed analysis when needed.
— Gilles Puetz, Co-Lead Sustainability, Valora
Impact: Data-Driven Product Decisions
The collaboration enabled Valora to compare products clearly and identify the biggest opportunities for CO₂ reduction. These insights now directly inform product development and assortment decisions—supporting choices around recipe optimization, new product selection, and ingredient alternatives across retail and foodservice.
We were able to clearly compare our products with one another and show, at ingredient level, where the major levers are.
— Gilles Puetz, Co-Lead Sustainability, Valora
Key Results
- Clear product comparability across the portfolio using CO₂ values in the development workflow
- Identification of high-impact ingredients as the main levers for emission reduction
- Climate data embedded directly into product and recipe development processes
- Stronger alignment between sustainability, category management, and product teams
Success Story: Vegan Crunchy Chicken
One tangible result of this approach is the success of lower-emission product variants, such as Valora's vegan Crunchy Chicken in Germany. This demonstrates that climate-friendlier recipes can perform commercially while supporting emission-reduction targets.
Learnings and Tips
1. Set a clear target, then build product-level transparency to act on it
Valora's 2030 reduction target only became actionable once CO₂ data was available at product and ingredient level, enabling teams to prioritise where to intervene first.
2. Embed CO₂ data directly into product development workflows
Making emissions visible in the same tools used for recipe design ensured climate impact was considered alongside taste, cost, and feasibility—not as a separate sustainability step.
3. Empower teams by showing where they can act
Ingredient-level transparency helped product teams understand which choices matter most, enabling faster, more confident decisions during development and assortment optimisation.
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Valora proves that embedding sustainability data into existing workflows drives real results. With the right tools, your teams can make climate-informed decisions without slowing down innovation.
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