1- Can you briefly describe your role and Bel’s activities?
I am Packaging Impact Manager at Bel, responsible for the environmental impact of packaging. My team and I have several roles:
• Eco-design and compliance: reducing the footprint of packaging, improving its recyclability, and ensuring compliance with regulations.
• Packaging data management and structuring: accurately measuring our impact, feeding into internal and external reporting, and supporting eco-design and decision-making.
• External representation: Bel actively participates in professional coalitions, notably the Consumer Goods Forum’s Plastic Waste Coalition, to advance collective solutions.
Bel is an international food group known for its iconic brands such as La Vache qui rit®, Babybel®, Kiri®, and Boursin®. We have a strong presence in individual formats, which requires specific packaging, often produced in our own factories using high-speed machinery. This integration is a strength in terms of guaranteeing performance, quality, and safety, but it also presents a challenge when it comes to adapting machinery to change materials and improve recyclability.
2- What actions is Bel taking to develop packaging with a lower environmental impact?
At Bel, we are convinced of the relevance of portion sizes: they promote the right amount, limit food waste, and guarantee food safety.
But this specificity makes eco-design more complex and requires us to optimize each package. That’s why we have adopted an ambitious approach, with our sustainable portion policy structured around 5Rs:
1. Refuse: eliminate unnecessary packaging, such as outer packaging or nets.
2. Reduce: optimize designs and materials to limit our carbon footprint.
3. Reuse: experiment with refillable or bulk solutions, such as wax-free Babybel® in bulk as part of the Bulk Challenge, and explore how this type of initiative could be extended across Europe.
4. Restore: favor renewable and responsible materials, with recent innovations such as paper wrap for Mini Babybel®, which has been widely reported in the media recently.
5. Recycle: ensure recyclability and contribute to the development of recycling channels, in particular through professional coalitions to improve the recycling of small aluminum packaging, such as CELAA in France or AREME in Belgium. We are looking at how to extend this approach across Europe.
This approach enables us to reconcile industrial performance with reducing our environmental impact, in line with our ambition to contribute to a circular economy.
3- You are a member of the Environmental Claims Committee (relating to packaging) as an expert: can you tell us three key points to remember about the activities and importance of this CNE committee?
In my opinion, three key points characterize the value of this committee:
a. A living and useful reference document
The CNE guide on environmental claims is regularly updated. It is a valuable tool for the packaging community in France, but also for us, the committee members. Its development involves extensive discussion of current legislation, practices, and the collection of concrete examples to illustrate the recommendations.
b. A forum for multi-stakeholder dialogue
We meet regularly to share the claims we encounter in our activities and analyze them together. This collective work, which brings together materials manufacturers, distributors, consumer associations, and environmental associations, allows us to understand the intention behind each claim and the associated eco-design approach, and to assess its clarity and relevance. This opportunity for exchange is very important to me; it is an excellent way to take a step back from our activities.
c. An advisory and monitoring role
The committee can guide or alert companies on the compliance and understanding of their claims, based on the CNE’s recommendations. These exchanges are very enriching for my role at Bel, as they strengthen our ability to communicate transparently and responsibly.
