PARMA, Italy--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 5, 2026--
A slimmer Tagliatelle pack that saves 150 tons of cardboard and cuts transport-related CO₂ emissions by 20% 1; ready-made sauce jars made with around 65% recycled glass; the progressive scaling of regenerative agriculture practices across Barilla’s value chain and initiatives supporting inclusion and equal opportunities across the Group’s production sites and communities. These are just some of the “sustainability” stories the Barilla Group is sharing on World Environment Day with the publication of its 2025 Sustainability Report. The report comes just after Barilla was named the world’s most reputable company in the food sector for the third year running and, for the first time, ranked among the global top 10 in the Global RepTrak 100 2026.
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“The future of the planet will increasingly depend on our ability to spread culture and education,”says Paolo Barilla, Vice Chairman of the Barilla Group. “For Barilla, this means caring for communities, promoting strong values, and investing in technologies and production systems that protect the environment and safeguard people’s health.”
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT ACROSS OUR PRODUCTS
Barilla’s passion for good food has driven the company to improve the nutritional profile of its entire portfolio without compromising on taste: 89% of volumes sold contain no more than 5 grams of sugar per serving, 90% contain no more than 0.5 grams of salt per serving and 90% provide a source of fiber 2. That same passion also fuels innovation, with more than €47 million invested in Research, Development and Quality in 2025. A symbol of this commitment is BITE (Barilla Innovation & Technology Experience), the new global Group innovation hub established in Parma next to the company’s historic pasta plant. Here, ideas are transformed into prototypes and industrial processes thanks to the work of more than 200 professionals, including food technologists, researchers, food designers, chefs and sensory experts, supported by a collaboration network of 84 universities and research centers.
€30 MILLION INVESTED TO QUADRUPLE PHOTOVOLTAIC CAPACITY ACROSS BARILLA PASTA AND BAKERY PLANTS IN 2025
On the energy front, €30 million was invested as part of a €168 million five-year plan through 2030 for Barilla’s production sites 3, spanning energy efficiency, more careful water management and the development of renewable electric energy systems. In 2025, five new plants activated in Foggia, Melfi, Ascoli Piceno, Cremona, in Italy and Thiva, in Greece, increased the installed photovoltaic capacity across production sites to over 8 MW, more than four times higher compared to 2022. Equally significant is the company’s progress on water conservation: at sites located in water-stressed areas, recycled and reused water rose by 196% compared with 2022, moving Barilla closer to its 2030 target of +250%. 4
SUSTAINABLE AND REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE ACROSS BARILLA’S GLOBAL VALUE CHAIN
Climate change and the pressure on natural resources require an evolution of agricultural practices, with a strong focus on the health of soil and ecosystems. In this context, Barilla’s commitment fits in: in 2025, the company purchased 4,160 tonnes of soft wheat from regenerative agriculture (with a target of 250,000 tonnes by 2030), aimed at restoring soil health and biodiversity while reducing water use.
Through its Barilla Sustainable Farming (BSF) program, active across key crops including cereals and basil, the Group sourced over 816,000 tons of raw materials since 2010, engaging nearly 7,000 farmers.
Building on this long-standing framework, Barilla is progressively scaling regenerative agriculture practices aligned with FAO principles, such as crop rotation, minimum tillage and organic fertilization, with the objective of improving soil health, enhancing biodiversity and reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.
COMMITMENT TO THE COMMUNITY: 4,000 TONNES OF FOOD DONATED AND €2 MILLION FOR SOCIAL CAUSES
Barilla’s presence in local communities also takes shape through projects that interest the Group’s production sites and public spaces, all rooted in the idea of food as a point of connection between different worlds. Through initiatives spanning food access and social inclusion, the Group works in partnership with non-profit organizations and local stakeholders in the countries where it operates.
In 2025, Barilla donated 4,000 tons of food products to non-profit organizations worldwide and allocated € 2 million to social causes, supporting initiatives focused on inclusion, education and social well-being. Alongside community programs, inclusion is also promoted within Barilla’s own operations, through initiatives aimed at fostering equal opportunities and the integration of vulnerable groups across production sites, in line with the Group’s broader People and Social Sustainability agenda.
THE NUMBERS BEHIND RESPONSIBLE GROWTH
Barilla’s sustainability commitment continues to progress alongside its business performance, as reflected in the publication of its two annual reports. In a year marked by an unstable global environment, amid geopolitical tensions, shifting trade dynamics and major cost volatility, the Barilla Group, with 30 production sites (15 in Italy and 15 abroad) and 2 million tons of products sold across 100 countries, reported revenues of €4.837 billion (+1% net of exchange-rate effects). Once again, the company confirms its commitment to the goals set out in the Barilla 2030 Sustainability Compass, which will continue to guide its direction over the next four years.
“Our Sustainability Stories” provide a concise overview of the initiatives and goals we consider most significant, as highlighted in the Barilla Sustainability Report 2025.
“Our Sustainability Stories” and the full Barilla Sustainability Report 2025 are available at www.barillagroup.com.
1 For further details, please refer to Chapter E1 of the Sustainability Report.
2https://www.barillagroup.com/it/sostenibilita/prodotti/
3https://www.barillagroup.com/it/sostenibilita/clima/
4https://www.barillagroup.com/it/sostenibilita/
Renewable Electricity, Soft Wheat Flour From Regenerative Agriculture, Initiatives to Support Local Communities: Barilla Shares These and Other Projects in “Stories of Sustainability.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military is waiting for clarity from the Pentagon following President Donald Trump's back-and-forth on troop levels in Europe, upending the lives of military personnel and potentially costing taxpayers millions of dollars, two U.S. defense officials told The Associated Press.
NATO allies were bewildered in May when Trump said he would send 5,000 U.S. troops to Poland just weeks after ordering the same number pulled from Europe, following a spat with Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the Iran war. The Trump administration says troop reductions in Europe have long been planned and coordinated with allies.
The Republican president announced on social media two weeks ago that he was sending troops to Poland — the same day the Pentagon had officially ordered the cancellation of a rotation of soldiers heading there, one of the defense officials said.
The unit's equipment was already on the way. Sending it cost the military $32 million, said U.S. Transportation Command, the military agency largely responsible for moving troops and gear across the globe.
The abrupt changes are forcing the military to “retroactively engineer” a policy in line with the president’s latest pronouncement, the official said. Both officials were briefed on the decisions and, along with others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters.
The uncertainty is not only rattling European allies worried about the message being sent to Russia, but it also risks hurting morale among American troops — some of whom had their rotations canceled shortly before departure — and comes as the Army budget is already strained.
The rotational deployment to Poland of 4,000 troops from the Army’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, based in Fort Hood, Texas, was canceled in a memo sent to the military at the beginning of May. European allies found out mid-month.
Some of those troops were told shortly before traveling not to get on a flight to Poland, while those who had been sent ahead — initially around 1,000 troops — are still waiting for confirmation they are being sent back, a U.S. military official said.
The military also is still waiting for details from the Pentagon on how to satisfy Trump's order to send 5,000 troops to Poland, that official said. The working assumption is that they will come from units already in Europe, rather than an additional deployment from the U.S., the official said.
U.S. Transportation Command had chartered a ship to take the team's equipment from Texas to Poland and transport a departing unit's gear back to America. The incoming team's portion of the cost was $32 million, including chartering the ship and loading and unloading the gear.
Because the ship was chartered to take one unit to Europe and bring another back, it is hard to say if that amount would have been saved had the decision to halt the deployment been made before the new team had already begun moving overseas.
However, the military official said the unscheduled move of personnel and equipment back from Europe is most likely not a cost the Pentagon budgeted for and would be an additional expense.
Total costs of canceling the rotation are hard to quantify because of many factors, said Joe Costa, a former senior Pentagon official who now focuses on challenges faced by the U.S. military as director of the Atlantic Council’s Forward Defense program.
They most likely stem from returning equipment and troops sent ahead of the deployment and would probably be on the low end of the rotation’s overall cost, Costa said. The greater impact is on the readiness of troops who were trained for one mission and may be deployed on another, he said.
U.S. military contracts with private companies to transport troops and equipment contain cancellation clauses that often add extra fees if a deployment is called off, said John Deni, a senior nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council who has studied such costs.
“The question is what additional costs were incurred by deciding to send them back prematurely, changing the arrangements, changing the plan?” said Deni, a former U.S. military adviser and planner who focused on forces in Europe.
It is not clear if the Pentagon can recoup those costs or those associated with moving the unit to Europe. The Defense Department did not answer questions about the costs of changing the deployment plans, and the White House referred a request for comment to the department.
Pentagon officials have repeatedly said they planned to lower troop levels to have Europe shoulder more of its own defense and that the decision was part of a “comprehensive, multilayered process.”
Last month's memo also led to the cancellation of a deployment to Germany of a battalion trained in firing long-range rockets and missiles.
When Trump first threatened to remove 5,000 troops from Europe, Pentagon officials initially suggested pulling back the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, which is based permanently in Germany, the defense official said.
Instead, officials decided to cancel the rotation of the other unit to Poland. Then Trump threw that plan into confusion as well.
Pulling the troops stationed in Germany could cost in the low billions because there is no dedicated space and infrastructure in the U.S. to accommodate them and their families, Costa said.
“The other option is basically breaking up the unit,” Costa said. “They move the equipment in different places. They move the people to different places. That carries significant readiness costs because now you’re artificially jamming pieces of units into places where they don’t necessarily belong.”
Pulling or pausing deployments also can hurt morale among soldiers and families because they plan for them months and years in advance, Deni said. The uncertainty can be disruptive.
"That’s often the last thing you want to do to military families,” Deni said.
It is still unclear what will happen to U.S. troops stationed in Europe, the two officials said. Options include moving military units assigned to Germany to Poland, but that could take several years and cost more, the military official said.
The moves come as the Army is facing a budget shortfall, which the service's top uniformed officer, Gen. Christopher LaNeve, recently acknowledged to Congress.
Estimates put the deficit somewhere between $2 billion and $6 billion, according to an Army official who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive defense matters. One impact has been cutting training courses for soldiers nationwide, which ABC News earlier reported.
In a statement, the Army said it has issued guidance to its commands to “make tough and sound resource decisions that optimize and prioritize resources toward their most critical requirements, to include major training and readiness events.”
The Army official also noted that the service has been tasked with missions like the National Guard deployment in Washington, a bolstered presence along the U.S.-Mexico border and its part in the Iran war — all of which have strained its budget.
The Department of Homeland Security expects to reimburse the Army for its role in the border mission.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told lawmakers at a May 15 hearing that he was “optimistic” there would progress on those payments “within a week or two.” But to date, the Army has not been reimbursed.
“We want those backfilled payments," Driscoll said then.
The U.S. military in Europe also is scaling back support for non-combat related training and ruthlessly prioritizing critical functions, the military official said.
Burrows reported from London.
FILE - The Pentagon is viewed from the window of an airplane Aug. 27, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
President Donald Trump listens at an event about coal, Thursday, June 4, 2026, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
