After animal welfare and climate, now also packaging: Migros expands M-Check

Until now, Migros' sustainability ranking, called M-Check, has assessed the dimensions of animal welfare and climate compatibility. Now it also evaluates how sustainable the packaging of a product is.

The M-Check provides an orientation on the sustainability of all products of the approximately 250 private brands. On a scale of 1 to 5, analogous to a hotel rating, the products are checked and evaluated for various sustainability criteria. With its transparency, the M-Check gives Migros customers the opportunity to make their purchases more sustainable. In addition to the rating for animal welfare and climate compatibility, the M-Check for packaging is now being launched.

How environmentally friendly a packaging performs in the M-Check is assessed on the basis of the factors packaging intensity (material & weight) and the packaging cycle (proportion of recycled material & recycling after use). The detailed evaluation criteria can be found online at  m-check.ch.

Evaluation criteria developed by external specialists

Each evaluation dimension of the M-Check was developed with external partners. For the new packaging dimension, Migros collaborated with Carbotech AG and Empa (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research) to ensure a scientifically sound evaluation system.

The climate dimension resulted from a collaboration with the life cycle assessment companies Treeze and Intep and was additionally verified by the myclimate foundation. For the animal welfare dimension, HAFL (University of Agricultural, Forestry and Food Sciences) developed an evaluation system so that classification options were available for all husbandry systems for different animal species.

The packaging dimension will be added to more and more products from now on. By the end of 2022, more than 300 articles will have the new M-Check dimension.

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