Mars claims that dairy raw materials account for more than 70 % of the company's total GHG footprint.
The food giant recently announced that it will support various sustainability initiatives in partnership with its key suppliers.
FrieslandCampina, Fonterra, Land O'Lakes and other dairy producers around the world are all part of the Moo'ving Dairy Forward program, which aims to accelerate progress and "move" a company towards its goal of reducing emissions by 50% by 2030.
For example, Dutch cooperative FrieslandCampina, a Mars supplier for 30 years, is forming the Mars-FrieslandCampina Sustainable Dairy Program, which will dedicate a group of farms to supplying Mars with dairy products and serve as a test bed for new environmental practices and technologies.
Take advantage of an opportunity
Food processors are increasingly looking to reduce greenhouse gases throughout their supply chains and are required to report on them by law each year. Emma Halprin told us they see this as a great opportunity. Reducing emissions on farms not only benefits our dairy member farmers, but also the cooperative and its customers.
The co-op manager said that while more customers were interested in working with the co-op to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, they were also showing a growing desire to work together on sustainability topics such as biodiversity and regenerative agriculture.
A pool of farmers who will "implement as many GHG emission reduction measures as possible on their farms" will be created for the Mars partnership. The pool of farmers will come from FrieslandCampina, a group that includes more than 500 dairy farmers.
Halprin explained that the pool will only represent Mars' greenhouse gas emissions and allocated mass balance, so there is no milk flowing specifically from the farms to the Mars plant.
Emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide will be reduced.
What is the mass balance method?
Mass balance allows the tracking of non-sustainable and sustainable raw materials as they move through a chain and are allocated to products. A manufacturer can increase the percentage of sustainable materials used in their product by using this method.
Halprin replied: "Initially, we will focus on Bovaer. Other measures, such as HVO Diesel, fertilizer additives or other feed additives, will be introduced in the future.
It is easy to use and has immediate results. The product is simple to use, has no adverse effects on the health of animals and does not affect milk production
The cooperative members will use the Annual Nutrient Cycle Assessment (ANCA) to monitor progress in sustainable agriculture on an annual basis. This comprehensive monitoring tool, which has been used for many years by nearly 10,000 FrieslandCampina member farms, provides detailed information on KPIs such as the carbon footprint of each farm.
This is not the first time the cooperative has partnered with Mars. In an effort to promote sustainability, the two companies have already entered into a sustainability partnership that began in 2021.
We were informed that this new agreement had already been signed at the beginning of the year and that it would last until the end of 2025.
Other actors
Fonterra, Land O'Lakes DMK Group, Interfood and Land O'Lakes are among the suppliers that stand to benefit from sustainable farming methods.
Fonterra in Tasmania will receive support from the confectionery giant to source food from Seaforest's seaweed supplements, also known as Asparagopsis.
Mars is working with Land O'Lakes to fund manure management in the United States. This includes solid separators, manure lagoon covers and other techniques that Mars says will reduce emissions from manure storage.
Mars, in collaboration with the DMK Group, has set up three dairy farms as pilots to test and implement science and technology. The aim is to achieve net zero milk balance within 5 years.
Mars has earmarked $47 million to spend over three years. FrieslandCampina’s Halprin told us the food major would directly reward its farmers for implementing and testing climate-smart practices, providing additional sustainability-related funding on top of the cooperative’s internal program.
What is Mars doing to reduce its emissions?
Raw materials are responsible for 70% of Mars Snacking's GHG emissions. Dairy products contribute the most to the carbon footprint of Mars Snacking's business.
Mars' footprint represents approximately 95 % of scope 3 (i.e. direct emissions are those that the company does not own or control, such as emissions from dairy production. The company is motivated to reduce indirect emissions by investing in on-farm measures.
) Recently, the confectionery and snacks giant announced that it had reduced its total business emissions by 16,% compared to a 2015 baseline. They also reported a 60,% increase in their business over the same period.
Her Report on. Sustainable impacts in 2023Mars’ scope 3 emissions reductions are approximately 15 % compared to the 2015 baseline. This equates to a CO2e saving of over five million tonnes. Scope 2 emissions were more than half lower, while scope 1 emissions were reduced by 200,000 tonnes.
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