Our Vision of Sustainability

Royal Canin wants to improve pets'life, placing cats and dogs' needs first to contribute to their optimal health. There is more: our nutritional approach based on nutrients enables us to consider the environmental and social impact of every single recipe we develop, whilst providing pets with nutrition of the highest quality, benefits and safety. And our sustainability journey doesn't end there: we are working relentlessly towards improving our impact on pets, planet and people, by making our activities more sustainable and socially responsible.

The sustainability pillars guiding Royal Canin

The health and wellbeing of cats and dogs is our priority, as well as promoting the positive role they play in society:

- Promoting responsible breeding and pet ownership

- Sharing our knowledge globally to better understand and care for cats and dogs, and advocate for preventive care

- Promoting the benefits of cats and dogs in human health and welfare through the Royal Canin Foundation.

Guided by science and innovation, we are working to help ensure a healthier planet for future generations of pets and pet owners:

- Reduce our footprint through procuring sustainable ingredients

- Reducing waste and boosting circularity

- Become certified carbon neutral in 2025

We strongly believe that building a sustainable business relies on the mutual value we build with our Associates and stakeholders:

- Acting together with our strategic supplier around the world to improve environmental and social impacts in supply chains

- Supporting our professional partners to help them operate their activities sustainably and responsibly

- Ensuring our Associates are trained and able to articulate our global sustainability strategy by 2022

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Our journey to carbon neutrality

As part of Mars, Incorporated commitment to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions across its full value chain by 2050, ROYAL CANIN® brand has committed to become certified carbon neutral by 2025 with its first product range aiming to be certified carbon neutral in 2022. ROYAL CANIN® plans to use the PAS 2060 standard for carbon neutrality, a robust and internationally recognized standard, and the brand will report transparently and regularly on its journey. The action areas we will take to achieve carbon neutral by 2025 are as follows:

Transitioning to renewable electricity, by achieving 100% renewable electricity across our factories and offices, while reducing energy consumption overall.

Procuring sustainable ingredients, by leveraging our nutrient-based approach and reducing carbon emissions through the reformulation of products, including switching to sustainably sourced proteins and low-carbon intensity ingredients.

Reducing waste and boosting circularity, by significantly boosting recyclability, compostability and the use of reusable packaging in alignment with Mars’s ambitious packaging sustainability goals.

In addition, we will work on integrating climate-smart business transformation, from management practices to the engagement of associates, suppliers and business partners in the journey.

For any residual emissions that ROYAL CANIN® cannot completely remove or reduce, we will invest in high-quality, removals–based certified carbon credits. The use of removals–based credits is aligned with the SBTi Net Zero Foundations paper.

“We believe that making this bold carbon neutral commitment will inspire and mobilize new and impactful ideas, actions and results and make a meaningful positive difference to the planet.”

- Loïc Moutault, Royal Canin President

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More Sustainable Packaging

As a core partner of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s (EMF) New Plastics Economy Initiative, and a signatory of its Global Commitment to eliminate plastic waste and pollution at its source, our vision is aligned with EMF, to support a circular economy where packaging never becomes waste. By 2025, we plan for all our plastic packaging to be recyclable, reusable or compostable. To close the loop we will also include up to 30% recycled post-consumer plastic in our plastic packaging - dependent on the advancement of chemical recycling at pace and scale & alignment of food safety regulations.

In parallel to formulation, we’re rethinking our approach to packaging, because we believe there is no such thing as a sustainable product in an unsustainable packaging.
Emmanuel Potier de la Houssaye, Head of Packaging Production

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Supporting the positive role of pets in society with the Royal Canin Foundation

Pets make the world a better place for us. Created in 2020, our Foundation finances projects that support the positive role of pets in human health and welfare.

“Our purpose is: A BETTER WORLD FOR PETS, because pets make our lives better. This is why the Royal Canin Foundation supports external projects where pets‘role is central to people's health and welfare.”

— Fabrice Mathieu, Global Sustainability Director

What our people say about sustainability

"We aim to avoid and reduce greenhouse gas emissions everywhere we can. To this end, we are also working with our supply chains as we know that raw materials represent 70% of our carbon emissions."

Cécile Coutens – Royal Canin President

"True to our science-based approach, we have assessed the carbon footprint of each of our 3,300 recipes. Now our climate ambition has led us to start one of the biggest business transformation of the last 10 years."

Marion Sarteel - Global Sustainability Coordinator

“The nutritional value of our Pet food is our top priority. We always try to combine it with the procurement of more environmentally-friendly raw materials. We will replace fish oil with algal oil in some formulas to preserve wild fish.”

Camille Usseglio – Europe Strategic Sourcing Manager

“As a vet, my love for animals is coupled with respect for the planet. With the "Go Green" programm led by our associates, we've installed beehives in our workplace with the aim of protecting the black bee, an endangered species.”

Marie-Anne Hours – Europe Scientific Communication Manager

“My job is to ensure that we have the right understanding and accuracy of sustainability data to reliably track our results. More than ever, I trust Royal Canin and its 8,000 associates to improve our societal impact on ecosystems.”

Géraldine Merat – Global Sustainability Coordinator

"We formulate recipes using raw materials selected for their nutritional benefits as well as their environmental impact. They are optimized to guarantee the best nutritional performance with lowest impact on our carbon footprint."

Geoffrey Daniel – Formulation Portfolio Manager

“Recyclability is one of our top objectives when we develop new packaging. I’m very proud to support and to contribute to this journey towards sustainability.”

Anne-Laure Lebeux – Global Packaging PMO

“We strongly believe that building a sustainable company relies on the mutual value we build with and for our stakeholders.”

Fabrice Mathieu – Global Sustainability Manager