FrieslandCampina achieves greenhouse gas emissions target

The sustainable investments that the FrieslandCampina cooperative has made over the past ten years are bearing fruit. On Tuesday 23 February, the dairy cooperative announced that it had achieved its target for climate-neutral growth between 2010 and 2020. It means that volume has increased, but greenhouse gas emissions have remained below 2010 levels.

Zuivelcoöperatie FrieslandCampina set itself the goal ten years ago to grow milk production towards 2020, but to keep greenhouse gas emissions below the 2010 level. In other words: achieving climate-neutral growth. The cooperative reports that it has achieved this goal. In recent years, the production volume has grown by 13,6% to approximately 10 million tons, while greenhouse gas emissions have remained below the 2010 level (at approximately 12 million tons).

Combination of investments
There is not one specific investment that has made the greatest contribution to achieving the objective, but it is precisely the combination of investments. That is what the dairy cooperative says. "Both our member dairy farmers and the employees in the supply chain have made a contribution", says Hein Schumacher, CEO of FrieslandCampina. Examples are making the vehicle fleet more sustainable (dairy trucks with solar panels), on the dairy farms (solar panels on the roof) and in the factories (green energy).

FrieslandCampina previously reported that, since 1 January, the power consumption for the production of Dutch Campina products has been fully covered by the generation of green power by the members of its own cooperative. "Profit can also be made in making packaging more sustainable, such as removing the plastic caps," adds Jan-Willem ter Avest, spokesperson for the dairy cooperative. Schumacher: "This performance underlines that we are on the right track, but also that we are not there yet."

Keep taking steps
That is why the cooperative will continue to work on reducing greenhouse gas emissions for the next ten years. "One of the priorities in our sustainability program 'Nourishing a better planet' is: a better climate and a CO2-neutral future. We want to reduce our emissions by more than 2030% by 33. This also involves creating a ​ "Positive impact on biodiversity and making soil stronger for carbon sequestration. That's why it's important that we measure our environmental impact. Sustainability metrics are also important to reward our sustainable farmers," says Schumacher.

According to Ter Avest, the current line will be continued. For example, FrieslandCampina announced last year that it would make an annual amount of €24 million available to stimulate sustainable developments on dairy farms. In this way, the company aims to achieve emissions below 2030 million tons by 10.

Kimberly Baker

Kimberly Bakker is an all-round editor at Boerenbusiness. She also has an eye for the social media channels of Boerenbusiness.

k.baker @boerenbusiness. Nl

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