Melitta Group

Melitta at the Federal President's Citizens' Festival

04.09.2023 | Melitta Group

• Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier invites you to the Citizens' Festival in the park of Bellevue Palace in Berlin on 8 and 9 September 2023.
• The importance of civic engagement for a lively and diverse civil society is the focus of the festival.
• The Melitta Group provides insights into its sustainability strategy with concrete projects and offers coffee enjoyment at four locations in the park.

Minden, September 04, 2023. The Melitta Group is set to showcase its sustainability transformation at the Citizens' Festival of the Federal President, taking place on the 8th and 9th of September, 2023.

At the festival, visitors will have the opportunity to explore the Group's sustainability strategy at their stand. Embracing the theme "Transform to Flourish," the goal is to make all value-added processes sustainable by 2030, covering coffee, plastics, paper, and electrical appliances. Moreover, the Melitta Group is launching a range of social business initiatives. Attendees will have the chance to discover more about eight specific projects and actions on site.

• Cooperation with rrreefs: Since 2023, the Melitta Group has been cooperating with rrreefs, a spin-off of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. The aim of rrreefs is to rebuild coral reefs around the world with the help of self-developed modular reef systems and thus reclaim a rich marine fauna.
• "Back to the Roots": With the "Back to the Roots" project, the Melitta Group, together with the Hanns R. Neumann Foundation (HRNS) in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil, is looking for ways to recycle organic waste throughout the coffee supply chain.
• Biomass Energy Project: At its plant in Celupa, Brazil, Melitta South America replaced a natural gas boiler with a biomass boiler in 2022. The biomass boiler reduces CO2 emissions by around 70 percent compared to the natural gas boiler. The conversion is a central building block in achieving climate-neutral operation of the plant by 2025.
• "Don't throw me away!": Since 2015, the Cofresco division, which is part of the Melitta Group, has been supporting the "Don't throw me away!" initiative. The initiative of the Hollen Environmental Centre aims to reduce food waste and informs pupils in primary school in particular about the value and correct handling of food.
• "Fair Recycled Plastic": Together with Yunus Social Business Fund gGmbH and Cofresco, the Melitta Group has set up a recycling plant in Bangalore, India, where around 2,000 tonnes of plastic recyclates are produced from plastic waste every year. The recyclates are used to produce garbage bags of the Swirl® and handy bag® brands.
• "Cuki Save the Food": For more than ten years, the "Cuki Save the Food" project has been helping to fight food waste: Instead of throwing away leftover meals, they are distributed to those in need as part of the project. 20 million meals have been saved in this way in the last ten years. Cuki, a company belonging to the Melitta Group, provides containers for this purpose in which meals can be transported safely.
• Paper extraction system: Millions of coffee filters are produced every day in Minden. The production process produces paper cuts, which are fed back into the paper machine via a technologically advanced extraction system. The extraction system, which went into operation in 2014, not only recycles 100 percent of the production waste. It also requires considerably less energy. This has reduced CO2 emissions by 60 percent.
• N-Viron-Flex® film: The N-Viron-Flex® film developed by ACW-Film is a single-origin single-material composite film for the food industry and has the same product properties as conventional composite films – but can be easily recycled. An external certifier has examined the recyclability of N-Viron-Flex® and issued a "Made for Recycling" certificate.

Coffee enjoyment for a good cause

In addition, guests will be provided with coffee and coffee specialties at four different locations in the park. A barista crafts fresh pour-over coffee on the pour-over bike, while two mobile coffee stations and a coffee bar offer a variety of coffee delights. Sales proceeds from the coffee will support the Wildwasser Minden e.V. specialist advisory center.

"United in the WE"

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier extends an invitation to the Citizens' Festival at Bellevue Palace Park in Berlin on the 8th and 9th of September 2023. These days will highlight the significance of civic engagement in fostering a lively and diverse civil society.

This year's festival theme, "United in the WE," will see the Federal President personally inviting volunteers on the first day, September 8th, 2023, as a gesture of honor. On the following day, September 9th, 2023, known as Open Palace Day, all citizens are encouraged to explore the Federal President's official residence and learn about the dedication of the nearly 50 participating organizations, initiatives, and enterprises.

Further information about the citizens' festival, the programme and admission can be found under www.buergerfest-bundespraesident.de .

The Melitta Group

Melitta is an internationally active group of companies and is one of the well-known independent family businesses not only in Germany. The main tasks are the development, manufacture and distribution of branded products for coffee enjoyment, for the storage and preparation of food as well as for cleanliness in the household. As a company with a tradition of more than 110 years, the Melitta Group thinks long-term and sees the promotion of sustainable development as an integral part of all its business activities. For more information, see melitta-group.com.