Bühler unlocks new pathways to profitable sustainability

At its flagship customer event, Networking Days 2025, held in June in Uzwil, Bühler presented a comprehensive quantification of the environmental footprint of 15 value chains across the food, feed, and advanced materials industries, along with the corresponding Environmental Impact Services. This assessment offers a clear view of key impact hotspots and provides companies with actionable insights on where and how to improve operations while advancing sustainability goals. “Sustainability is often perceived as a burden or cost factor,” says Samuel Schaer, Head of Services & Sales at Bühler. “With this assessment and our Environmental Impact Services, we can clearly demonstrate how business objectives and sustainability are closely interlinked – with sustainability serving as a driver of long-term business success.” Early adopters have already proved this approach. 

Bühler has hosted its Networking Days every three years since 2016, bringing together industry leaders, partners, and experts to collaborate on solutions to the most pressing global challenges. At Networking Days 2022, Bühler made a clear commitment: “In 2025, we want to have solutions ready to multiply which reduce energy, waste, and water in the value chains of our customers by 50%.” Now, only three years later, this ambition is beginning to materialize. The scale of what is achievable is illustrated by Bühler’s comprehensive analysis of 15 value chains, spanning from raw materials to finished products – such as grain to pasta, or maize to pet food. In 11 of these value chains, reductions of at least 50% were found to be feasible in one or more key environmental dimensions, including energy, waste, water, CO₂-equivalent emissions, and land use.

For example, in the pea protein value chain, energy use can be reduced by 82%, water consumption by 73%, and greenhouse gas emissions by 79%. Milk chocolate production shows potential for 77% lower CO₂e emissions, 37% less water use, and 32% less energy consumption. In aluminum die casting, Bühler’s quantification reveals significant potential as well: 28% less energy, 39% less waste, 83% less water, and a 71% reduction in CO₂e emissions.

“We go far beyond Bühler equipment,” says Jay O’Nien, Group Sustainability Officer at Bühler. “Our methodology quantifies where change is achievable – even in areas beyond our traditional scope. This includes regenerative agriculture, biobased materials, and alternative energy sources. It is about understanding where the real levers for decarbonization and resource efficiency lie.”

Through its Environmental Impact Services, Bühler supports customers in realizing these reduction potentials, while also unlocking business opportunities. The service identifies environmental hotspots across entire value chains and provides guidance on how to reduce emissions, water consumption, waste, and land use, all while improving operational and financial performance. This systems-level perspective enables the development of tailored, actionable pathways toward transformation.

CHF 500 million investment enables industrial transformation

This transformation is built on three pillars: the substitution of conventional products with new alternatives such as plant-based meat; the adoption of more efficient technologies and equipment, for example replacing gas ovens with induction ovens; and the optimization of existing installed base with services. “Services play a key role in simultaneously improving business performance and sustainability outcomes,” says Samuel Schaer. 

Over the past years, Bühler has invested more than CHF 500 million in research and development to lay the technical foundation for this transformation. This includes a new generation of breakthrough processing technologies, such as continuous battery slurry mixing, megacasting, and low-emission roasting systems, as well as digital applications built on Bühler Insights, the company’s digital platform that enables predictive maintenance and performance optimization. The investment also covers a comprehensive portfolio of customer services, ranging from energy assessments and equipment retrofits to long-term, holistic service agreements.

Proof of concept: customers lead the way

Multiple customer implementations already demonstrate that Bühler’s approach to sustainability is more than a concept – it delivers measurable results.

For example, the Italian pasta maker Andriani, in Gravina in Puglia, Italy, has implemented a comprehensive sustainability strategy in collaboration with Bühler. The company recovers process water to cultivate spirulina, uses photovoltaic systems, and operates a biomass boiler fueled by milling by-products and locally sourced woodchips – saving up to 4,250 tons of CO₂e annually. Andriani is also developing a tracking system with the aim of monitoring the environmental footprint of each product using Bühler’s Environmental Impact Services. At the same time, the company has grown significantly, doubling revenue between 2018 and 2024, increasing production from 22,000 to 39,000 tonnes, and achieving over 90% circularity in its pet food production.

Similarly, the Swiss FoodTech innovator Planted, in Kemptthal, Switzerland, uses Bühler’s process technologies  and services to scale its next generation of fermented foods. Its plant-based meats generate up to 97% fewer CO₂e emissions compared to their animal counterparts, and its modular manufacturing platform allows for rapid adaptation to different product formats. Today, Planted supplies more than 10,000 retail and over 7,000 food service outlets across Europe, proving that sustainability and scale can go hand in hand.

Step changes have become urgent

The need for transformational change is no longer optional. As Professor Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, emphasized during his keynote at Networking Days 2025, humanity is already overshooting six of the nine planetary boundaries that define a safe operating space for life on Earth. Climate change, biodiversity loss, and biochemical flows are accelerating beyond critical thresholds, risking irreversible tipping points in the planet’s systems. The scientific consensus is clear: the window of opportunity to realign industry and the global economy within planetary limits is rapidly closing. What is needed now is bold, science-based, and coordinated action – precisely the kind of support Bühler’s Environmental Impact Services are designed to provide.

“We are beyond the stage of fine-tuning,” says Jay O’Nien. “It is time to build business models that regenerate rather than deplete. We can no longer afford trade-offs between growth and sustainability.” With this offering, Bühler is helping to lead the way – partnering with customers and industries to create profitable solutions that operate within the boundaries of our planet.