Bühler Unlocks New Pathways to Profitable Sustainability

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, at its flagship customer event, Networking Days 2025. The event was held in June in Uzwil, Switzerland.

This assessment offers a 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 hosts its Networking Days every three years since 2016. 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, three years later, this ambition is beginning to materialize.

The scale of what is achievable is illustrated by Bühler’s 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.

“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.

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 Schaer.

Over the past years, Bühler has invested more than CHF 500 million ($618 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. In addition, digital applications are built on Bühler Insights, the company’s digital platform that enables predictive maintenance and performance optimization.

“We are beyond the stage of fine-tuning,” says 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.”