Shaping a sustainable future: how Niatsu is revolutionising food production

Niatsu was launched with a clear vision of ensuring a sustainable world through more sustainable food production. By providing revolutionary data solutions, the company empowers food producers to make their operations more environmentally friendly. Niatsu was voted into third place by Pax and FHNW in the Swiss Sustainability Challenge 2024.

thebroker talks to Marius Semm, CEO and co-founder of the Niatsu start-up, which he set up with four other people.

First of all, congratulations on coming in third in the Swiss Sustainability Challenge 2024. Have you already spent the CHF 4,000 you won?

Thank you. Yes, in part – we used some of it to create a professional video about Niatsu with the FHNW. We will use another part to organise a well-deserved Christmas team event, and the last part will go towards improving our product.

Your intention is to create a world where sustainable consumption becomes the norm and no longer just an option. How do you plan to do that?

There are still many misunderstandings regarding the sustainability of different foods and the emissions generated by each step in the supply chain. We help food manufacturers better understand where their emissions occur and what they can do to reduce them.

Our customers also need this information to inform end consumers, as Outlawz Food does on their packaging and in their online shop. Other customers use Niatsu to determine their sustainability strategy for the future.

How do you support companies in the food industry in reducing greenhouse gases?

In the first step, we calculate the CO₂ emissions of all products, thus creating more transparency for both companies and their customers. In the second step, we show companies where they can make the biggest reductions and quantify what CO₂ can be saved with which measures.

With the help of your intelligent NiatsuDB, all the footprints of a product can be calculated. Give us an example.

For Outlawz, we calculated the CO₂ emissions of all products. The CO₂ emissions of the ‚Forever sausage‘ are around 1kg CO₂ per kilogram, compared to a similar meat-based sausage that emits about 5 times as much CO₂.

Niatsu calculates the entire product history of a food product. What figures are collected for this?

We look at all the individual ingredients of the product, their origin and the means of transport used. We then analyse the processes, including the type and amount of energy required. Finally, we check which packaging materials are used and in what quantities.

On your website, you can use the shopping list for a recipe to calculate the ecological footprint. thebroker tried it out and got 1,724 kg CO₂E for a chicken and rice stir-fry. What can you do with this value?

Our focus is on food manufacturers, because we are convinced that change must start there. However, it is not only the manufacturers and retailers who are responsible; consumers can also help to reduce the CO₂ in their shopping basket. This led to the idea of making our data available to the public through our CO₂ calculator. Our goal is to make it easy to compare and understand which ingredients have the biggest impact. What happens if you replace chicken fillet with an alternative product such as tofu or mushrooms? Does the CO₂ value decrease? And if so, by how much?

It will probably take a long time before all food products have their carbon footprint labelled. What can we do in the meantime to shop more ecologically, given that most products come from abroad?

There is a major misunderstanding in society here: transporting food from abroad accounts for only a small proportion of total emissions.

The biggest emissions from our diet depend much more on what food we consume – in particular, how much plant-based food and how many animal products.

You develop technologies that enable the food and beverage industry to change their operations and thus achieve a positive impact on people and the environment. Please elaborate.

The problem with food manufacturers is that they are often unable to quantify how much CO₂ they could save by making certain changes. What would the savings be at the product level if they switched from conventional electricity to renewable electricity? Or what percentage could be saved if they sourced sugar from Switzerland instead of cane sugar from Brazil? We help manufacturers to quantify the impact of such changes and identify the quickest ways to achieve a reduction.

Who is your product designed for and who are your customers?

Our customers are large food manufacturers in Europe who, due to regulatory pressure, have to create more transparency and set targets for their future sustainability strategy.

Where do you get the data needed to evaluate the carbon footprint of food?

We have our own database that consists of research, other databases and our own assessments of raw materials that we have carried out over the last two years. In the next few years, we want to invest more in automating the analysis of raw materials, as we still see room for improvement there.

The Science Based Targets (SBTi) verify and validate the science-based targets of companies, financial institutions and SMEs around the world. How do you work with them?

The SBTi helps us because they are widespread in the food industry. Most retailers in Switzerland have set targets to quantify and reduce their emissions. As a result, their suppliers have to report their emissions and show possible reduction paths.

What solutions does Niatsu offer to make the economy more sustainable?

We provide sustainability data so that clear action plans can be drawn up and resources can be deployed where the greatest potential for reduction lies. We integrate our data directly into our customers‘ systems so that sustainability data can be used in existing systems.

Finally, why did you choose the food industry and not, for example, the clothing industry, where the ecological footprint is also very high?

There are several reasons: at 20-30 %, it is one of the largest sectors for CO₂ emissions. Furthermore, CO₂ emissions from food production are expected to continue to rise until 2050 as eating habits change worldwide.

Marius Semm is the co-founder and CEO of Niatsu, where he’s turned his passion for sustainability and food into a pioneering venture. Together with Jakob Tresch, he launched Niatsu to empower food producers with scalable CO2 calculations for their entire product range.

Before founding Niatsu, Marius worked with a Swiss impact investor and before that gained valuable experience at Accenture and Credit Suisse.

Also read: Swiss Sustainability Challenge 2024: EnableMe Insights, VERRETEX und Niatsu sind die Gewinner