Friesland­Campina reaches target climate neutral growth 2010-2020

In 2010 Royal FrieslandCampina set a clear target for its sustainability journey. It allowed the production to grow towards 2020 as long as the greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 would not exceed those of 2010. FrieslandCampina called that ‘climate neutral growth’. Today FrieslandCampina the combination of the cooperative of more than 17,000 member dairy farmers and the company - has reached this important milestone: its total reported greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 are lower than in 2010, while its production volume grew by 13.6% in that same timeframe.

Hein Schumacher, CEO Royal FrieslandCampina: “I am proud we have accomplished this together: both our member farmers reducing greenhouse gases on their farms as well as our employees who have really embraced the energy transition by implementing green energy in our supply chain. This achievement underpins that we are on the right track, but also that we are not there yet. One of the priorities of our recently launched sustainability programme ‘Nourishing a better planet’ is: a better climate, a carbon neutral future. It means that there’s no time to waste, but that we have to smartly enable the next step: reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by over a third by 2030.” *

* base year 2015: -33% cooperative, -40% company

“Carbon neutral dairy to FrieslandCampina is about more than reducing our emissions. It is also about positive biodiversity impact and making our soil stronger for carbon sequestration. That is why it is so important that we measure our environmental impact, because what gets measured, gets done. Sustainability metrics are important for rewarding our sustainable farmers as well”, Schumacher says.

1. FrieslandCampina’s climate neutral growth goal can also be found in our ISO 26,000 policy, on page 29: FrieslandCampina-Questions-ISO-26000.pdf: FrieslandCampina's objective for the year 2020 is to accomplish climate neutral growth by ensuring that the emission of greenhouse gases is kept equal or lower compared to the level of 2010. This objective covers the greenhouse gases released at the farms of the member dairy farmers, transport from the farm to the production locations and the processing of dairy.
2. Since 2010 FrieslandCampina has been publishing its GHG emissions via annual Sustainability Reports. Since 2018 these are part of its integrated Annual Report.
3. The calculations for the climate neutral growth target over 2010-2020 have been provided and researched by third parties. Furthermore we’ve asked our external auditor PwC to review our Annual Reporting in which our sustainability performance, including GHG emissions are disclosed.
4. Scope: member dairy farms, transport from farm to production locations, production locations.
5. 2010: production volume member milk 8,859 mln kg, GHG emissions 13,108 kton (member farms, transport from farm to production locations, production locations).
6. 2020: production volume member milk 10,064 mln kg, GHG emissions 13,039 kton.
7. Combined with other measures, the GHG per kg of milk decreased by 8% to 1.22 kg CO2eq/kg in 2020 compared to 2010.