Swiss supermarket chain Migros plans to extend the use of its M-Check sustainability evaluation scale to assess the sustainability of product packaging.
Until now, M-Check was used to evaluate animal welfare and climate compatibility, the retailer noted.
M-Check
M-Check provides information on the sustainability of products, including all 250 Migros private-label SKUs, enabling customers to make more sustainable purchases.
The products are checked and assessed against various sustainability criteria on a scale of one to five.
If a product receives a five-star rating, it is deemed to be excellent in terms of sustainability. However, if it is awarded just one star, there is still plenty of room for improvement.
Sustainable Packaging
From now, the sustainability of product packaging will be assessed on the basis of factors such as material, weight and packaging cycle (percentage of recycled material and recycling after use).
The M-Check parameters were developed together with external partners, including carbotech AG and Empa (Federal Material Testing and Research Laboratory).
Independent third-party partners, such as the life-cycle assessment firm treeze for climate and the Berne University of Applied Sciences School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (HAFL) for animal welfare, vouch for the evaluations.
Migros expects that, by the end of 2022, the packaging assessment will be available for more than 300 SKUs.
The Swiss group reported growth in its core retail business in full-year 2021, with its convenience, discount and health segments the biggest growth-drivers.
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest packaging and design news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
