ccording to FrieslandCampina, the company has taken new steps over the past year to make its dairy chain even more sustainable.“As a dairy cooperative with nearly 20,000 member dairy farmers, we work to assure our long-term continuity and don’t allow ourselves to be led by short-term thinking,” said Royal FrieslandCampina CEO Cees ’t Hart. “Sustainability is thus an integral part of our route2020 growth strategy. Not just because consumers, customers and society in general increasingly expect it, but also because we take our responsibility towards our many stakeholders seriously, want to guarantee the continuity of our own organisation and hope to make our earnings model resilient to future challenges to sustainability.”
FrieslandCampina notes that it has been actively working to reduce the sugar content of its products since 2009. In Malaysia, the company has a programme to reduce sugar content by 2,700 tonnes, which is roughly equivalent to 54 freight lorries. It has also cut the salt content in its semi-hard cheese by 5%.
With 25 production plants in the Netherlands and 14,000 member dairy farms, FrieslandCampina has a major impact on energy consumption and CO2 emissions in the country. It has therefore committed itself to climate-neutral growth. In 2012, the company says that it improved the energy efficiency of its production plants worldwide by 4% compared with 2011, and 40% of the electricity consumed by these facilities is now supplied by its member dairy farms. In 2012, FrieslandCampina again took significant steps to purchase sustainable raw materials, such as RTRS soy, RSPO palm oil and Utz-certified cocoa, and from 2013 it will buy only FSC-approved packaging for the West European market.
Through its Dairy Development Programme (DDP), FrieslandCampina says that it is contributing to rural development and local fresh milk production in Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Nigeria. DDP already accounts for 19% of local fresh milk production in Vietnam.
FrieslandCampina supports its dairy farmers in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium through the Foqus planet quality and sustainability programme, which was launched in January 2012. The programme concentrates on animal health and welfare, biodiversity and mineral management, energy and climate and the preservation of outdoor grazing in the Netherlands. Approximately 1,000 member dairy farmers took part in an energy scan and 80 workshops were held on renewable energy and animal welfare (reduction in the use of antibiotics).
The company says that it wants to contribute to three relevant global concerns: nutrient security, reducing the average age of the farming community by offering good prospects to young farmers and increasing the sustainability of its own dairy chain ‘from grass to glass’. It is also committed to making CSR (corporate social responsibility) a permanent part of all its day-to-day business processes.
