Food fit for the future
Food. It’s a basic necessity for life, a livelihood, a way to express cultures and beliefs. It brings us joy and creates memories. What we eat also plays a crucial role—not just in our health, but in the health of the planet. At Huel, we’re here to make choosing nutritious, sustainable foods easy and convenient.
Low-carbon food
The food system accounts for over a quarter of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Animal-based foods are responsible for more than half of these emissions, but only provide 18% of global calorie intake. The simplest way to significantly reduce emissions is to shift to plant-rich diets. Research has shown that to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, each meal should have a carbon footprint of around 0.5kg CO2e or less. We are committed to ensuring that all Huel meals meet this standard.
Sustainable ingredients
It’s not just about carbon; we want to ensure that Huel products have a low impact across all environmental aspects. To measure the performance of our ingredients, we use HowGood, the world’s largest ingredient sustainability database.
We evaluate five key metrics: greenhouse gas emissions, blue water usage, labour risk, biodiversity, and land use. These metrics guide all our sourcing. Additionally, we support regenerative agriculture field trials with our oat growers to reduce the use of synthetic fertilizers.
Suppliers with shared values
We only want to work with suppliers who share our values. We assess risk in our value chain and evaluate the ethical performance of our suppliers using several tools, including the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (Sedex).
All new suppliers must sign the Huel Supplier Code of Conduct and hold an internationally recognised, independently verified ethical certification. Additionally, we source all our cocoa through Tony’s Open Chain to ensure that farmers are paid a living wage, child labour is prevented, and there is zero deforestation.
Net zero
Net Zero means achieving a balance between greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere and those removed. Reaching Net Zero globally by 2050 would halt the climate warming caused by human activities, allowing us to avoid the extreme impacts of climate change.
We use the Altruistiq carbon accounting platform to measure our scope 1-3 emissions at both the company and individual product levels using the, and track performance against our reduction targets.
Packaging responsibly
We are strong advocates for responsible packaging. Our goal is to use the right materials to protect the products, maintain quality, and maximize shelf life to reduce waste in a way that is both low carbon and designed for a circular economy. Our bottles are made from 51% recycled content and are fully recyclable. Our cans, bars, and protein tubs are also fully recyclable.
Our pouches are lightweight, multi-serve, and have a shelf life of over 12 months. While not recyclable, they account for less than 3% of the product's carbon footprint. We considered transitioning to a cardboard tub to utilize renewable materials and make them recyclable, but this would’ve increased the carbon footprint by more than 150%...so we didn’t.
“No” to food waste
If food waste were a country, it would rank third in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, following China and the US. Our products are designed to reduce food waste, featuring long shelf lives (unopened Huel powder lasts 12 months, and once opened, it will last 6 months if stored correctly) and flexible serving sizes.
They also contain many ingredients that are by-products of other food products, like pea protein from rice noodles. Any unsold products with less than three months before their best-before date are donated to food banks.
Giving back
In 2020, we launched our Community programme, committing to donate 1% of our profits each year to charities and organisations aligned with our mission, as well as providing all employees with one paid day per year for volunteering.
We are strategic partners with the Felix Project in London, which redistributes surplus food to those in need, and Lindengate, a mental health charity in Wendover. Additionally, we are supporting the Elba Hope Foundation’s Project Trust to improve the livelihoods of cocoa farmers in Sierra Leone while ensuring the protection and regeneration of forests and cocoa farmlands.
