World’s first carbon capturing standard for cattle farming

Net-climate neutral and net-positive biodiversity impact

Better climate and better nature are two of our priorities to nourish a better planet. With our programmes we support our cooperative owned by our member dairy farmers. The programmes are about becoming net-climate neutral and having a net-positive impact on biodiversity. That asks for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions as far as possible and making nature stronger.

Making it measurable

Achieving climate and nature goals requires measurability so we know how we are scoring and where we can improve. That is why we have (co-)developed and implemented science based systems at individual farm level which allows us to track what the scores are on climate and nature.

What is carbon sequestration about?

Carbon sequestration is one of the solutions for the global climate challenge. It is about the long-term storage of carbon, for instance in plants and soil. In this case measurability is also key. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is one thing, storing is another. It is important to learn how much carbon is captured and sequestered, also to know its effectiveness. That asks for a science based methodology with common understanding and support from relevant organisations.

Setting the standard: C-Sequ

Pablo Modernel, R&D specialist at FrieslandCampina and member of the development team: “FrieslandCampina, together with a set of companies, global soil scientists and life-cycle assessment-(LCA)specialists have worked 4 years to build world’s first LCA-based methodology for calculating carbon sequestration in cattle production systems: C-Sequ. It includes the latest LCA practices including both IPCC and ISO guidance. In September 2022 this methodology was adopted by the International Dairy Federation. This means that all the companies share the same vision on how carbon sequestration should be accounted for when dealing with product claims, advising farmers or reporting emissions. Furthermore, the learnings of the project are being used in different projects and initiatives looking at carbon farming in the Netherlands and the EU.”

What are we doing about it?

Pablo adds: “We might not be there yet in measuring all the carbon stored by our member farmers, but they do already actively work with the biodiversity monitor we developed with WWF-NL and Rabobank. We have implemented this monitor and over 10,000 of our members use it.”

The biodiversity monitor for dairy farming focuses on:

1. Local feed production for instance focusing on local feed production to lower the impact of imported feed components
2. Permanent grassland like no tillage
3. Nature and landscape management including more nature elements at farms, such as trees and meadow birds protection
4. Developing a richer composition of grass to attract birds and insects for instance by reseeding grassland with richer mixture, like flowers and herbs.

And it also looks at decreasing negative impacts like greenhouse gas emissions.