Work together with customers on greenhouse gas reduction at the farm
Tess Niesing, member dairy farmer from Reeuwijk, the Netherlands
Dairy produced in proper balance with nature and climate; FrieslandCampina has major ambitions with respect to carbon-neutral future. We work together with our member dairy farmers as well as with our customers on continuously making dairy more sustainable. Our cooperation with Nestlé is a striking example of this. Just like FrieslandCampina, this company has ambitious climate objectives, taking the entire chain into account. This chain starts at the farms of our member dairy farmers.
Within the nourishing a better planet sustainability programme, FrieslandCampina is working, among other things, on reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases that are released when processing milk, during transport and at the farm. Our aim is to reduce this by more than one third in 2030 compared to the year 2015 with the ultimate goal of climate-neutral production in the year 2050. Nestlé, the world’s largest food company and also customer of FrieslandCampina, has ambitious climate objectives as well and applies a chain-wide approach with respect to this.
Custom work
In 2019, the companies started a joint project and worked with 25 member dairy farmers of FrieslandCampina in the Netherlands and Germany on reducing the greenhouse gas emissions at their respective farms. This is very successful, as participating dairy farmers know which buttons to press to decrease the greenhouse gas emissions.
This also holds for Tess Niesing from Reeuwijk (Netherlands), who learnt a lot about producing milk with low greenhouse gas emissions at a farm on peat soil by attending workshops and visiting fellow dairy farmers. This type of soil requires a specific and rather complex approach. Tess is satisfied with what she has accomplished at her dairy farm in the past two years. “Improving sustainability is custom work. This project made clear which specific elements I can adjust. For example, we optimised the ensilage process of the grass (ed.: store grass for future feed) and adjusted the feed for our cows. By means of all measures taken we managed to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions at our farm by about 7 percent. We are quite proud of this.”
Improving sustainability is custom work
Leading position
Robert Erhard, Head Sustainable Agriculture Development for dairy at Nestlé also looks back on the project with great satisfaction and states: “FrieslandCampina is really important to Nestlé, because FrieslandCampina delivers our dairy ingredients and, moreover, works together with the member dairy farmers. Therefore it is a logical step to work together with FrieslandCampina on our common sustainability ambition and to invest in sustainable development at the farm.”
“Major customers of FrieslandCampina want to work with suppliers that take sustainability seriously and act accordingly. The consumer is looking for more sustainable products and is increasingly willing to pay for this”, Auke Zeilstra, Account Manager at FrieslandCampina, tells us. “Governments will keep stimulating improvement of the sustainability within the dairy industry. Therefore it is important that we maintain and further strengthen our leading position in the area of sustainable dairy and with this remain a relevant partner”, according to Auke.
Value for the chain
Eventually, we can only work in a more sustainable way if the customer and consumer are willing to pay a fair price for this. Making sustainability measurable and cooperation with customers such as Nestlé are crucial in our mission aimed at a positive impact on farmer, community and planet. “This offers FrieslandCampina opportunities to create more sustainable milk flows and, additionally, to valorise these in the market. Then sustainability efforts at the farm will actually be rewarded”, Auke continues. “With this reward investments can be made in further increasing the sustainability. My expectations are that sustainability will eventually become a basic condition for being allowed to service customers such as Nestlé. I am convinced that cooperation between various parties is the only way to success.”
Keep investing
This cooperation will be followed up this year. In the coming period, Nestlé will keep investing in reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases at the farm and it will further expand its support to member dairy farmers of FrieslandCampina in the coming year.