Puratos’ venture arm joins forces with Glimpact to help bakery sector reduce its environmental 'foodprint'

Glimpact is the creator of the platform, also called Glimpact, while Sparkalis will provide scalable support. Glimpact will allow bakers, chocolatiers and pâtissiers – along with allied stakeholders – to assess, understand and reduce the environmental footprint of their products.

Glimpact is the first tech to model the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) – the scientific reference method developed by the European scientific community – in the form of an application accessible to all companies.

The PEF is aligned to the Green Deal and is the only method recommended by the European Commission to member states.​​

Huge step forward

“We are committed to investing in innovative technologies to create a healthier and more sustainable ecosystem for today’s and tomorrow’s generations around the world,”​ said Filip Arnaut, MD of Sparkalis.

“With this partnership, we believe we can support the bakery, patisserie and chocolate industry in taking a huge step forward in terms of environmental labelling.” ​

The result of a consensus among the European scientific community, the PEF method is based on analysing a product’s life cycle. It considers 16 categories of the impact of human activity on the planet, including the carbon footprint, the use of fossil and mineral resources, certain aspects of biodiversity, toxicity, land use, water resources and fine particle emissions.

Unprecedented eco-design tool

“The PEF method radically changes how companies look at the issues of the ecological transition in the agri-food industry,” ​said Christophe Girardier, president and CEO of Glimpact, which has worked with a number of major players in production and distribution, including Mars, Carrefour, Lacoste and Groupe Beaumanoir, among others, since founding in 2018.

“Through this dedicated platform, bakery, patisserie and chocolate businesses will be able to discover how exactly their products impact the environment and, most importantly, have the right tools to reduce that impact. This is where the true ecological transition of the industry begins.” ​

The dynamic tool provides insight into the actions needed to make products more sustainable, allowing producers to choose the best raw materials, processes and suppliers, and to work on all stages of its lifecycle.

It provides easy access to the PEF method and taps the French startup’s team of experts in environmental performance, data processing and big data to radically change the industry’s environmental footprint.