Key Interview: DuPont Highlight Sustainability Goals for Whole Value Chain

30 May 2017 --- Sustainability Leader at DuPont Nutrition & Health (N&H), Dr Mikkel Thrane has a PhD in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of seafood products and a Master of Science degree in Environmental Management. He joined DuPont N&H in 2010, and was initially responsible for life cycle assessment and sustainable solutions. His role gradually shifted to become more strategic with a focus on development and implementation of DuPont N&H’s sustainability strategy – focusing on leveraging sustainability across all key functions in the organization, as well as in relation to stakeholders, notably customers. 

FoodIngredientsFirst caught up with Thrane, who discussed DuPont N&H’s three focus areas covering the whole value chain: 

• Sustainable sourcing
• Sustainable manufacturing 
• Sustainable solutions 

“On sustainable sourcing our goal has been to source all our palm oil based raw materials according to RSPO certification. We accomplished this goal for our production in Denmark in 2014/2015 and globally in 2017, which is quite an achievement.” 

“But it is not only palm oil we address. In fact, we have a sustainable sourcing program covering six different types of bio-based raw materials or 90 percent of everything we buy in the bio-based category,” he explains. “Apart from palm that includes soy, wood based products, guar, carob beans, and seaweed that we use for our carrageen and alginate production. We really want to make a step change in our sustainable sourcing efforts. Soy is a product where sustainable sourcing must be considered. Between 70% and 80% of our soy is sourced in US which is less of an issue. But we also source soy from Brazil. Here, we are working hard to develop and implement an ambitious sustainable soy sourcing policy in collaboration with an NGO called NepCON.”

For sustainable manufacturing DuPont N&H have the traditional goals that most companies have on water reduction, energy, and CO2 reduction. And also more radical goals such as elimination of coal as a source of combustion at all manufacturing sites. “Our largest site located in Denmark, would, by the end of year have converted from using coal as an energy source to only using wood chips. The site will become completely carbon neutral – partly because wood chips have a much lower footprint - and partly because significant amounts of excess heat will be delivered to the local district heat network that currently depends on gas as their principle energy source,” notes Thrane. 

‘Sustainable solutions’ is the third leg of the strategy. “You cannot talk about sustainable solutions without sustainable sourcing and manufacturing – that being said, solutions are probably the most important focus area. Sustainable solutions concern the life cycle of our products and how they interact with our customer’s value chains. For some of our solutions, several hundred kilos of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) can be avoided in our customer’s value chain per kilo of ingredient applied. The ingredients are typically applied in very small amounts, but they have significant effects in value chains with large volumes and impacts. The improvements we can make here should not be underestimated,” explains Thrane. 

“One example could be our protective cultures that allow for an increase of shelf life of white cheese 3 fold, which has the potential to reduce food waste by about 60%. Similar reductions can be obtained by our enzyme and emulsifier solutions applied in bakery products. There is also our vegetable proteins offer,” says Thrane. “We recently completed a life cycle assessment of our isolated protein solutions, where the carbon footprint turns out to be between 7 to 70 times lower than the competing animal based proteins.” 

He continues, “The goal is to contribute to avoiding annual emissions of 15 million tons CO2e in our customer’s value chain by 2020 through. We also have a goal to establish 20 sustainability partnerships with customers, to complete life cycle assessments of all main product categories, and to integrate sustainability in our process and product development. Going forward one of the challenges will also be to integrate the health dimension in our sustainable solutions strategy. Together with 25 other companies, we recently joined the FReSH initiative led by World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the EAT foundation, focusing on promoting healthy and sustainable diets. This is a perfect match with what we are trying to accomplish with our new strategy.”

“We definitely see a move in the customer base towards more focus on sustainability and food waste,” he explains. “At a consumer level there is also a trend towards natural and organic, free from labeling and a trend towards transparency and traceability. This is also reflected in the demand we see from our customers, but they clearly focus on different things. While some focus on naturalness, others focus on health more broadly by reducing sugar, fat and salt – or by adding fibers and probiotics. And while some focus on sustainable sourcing other customers tend to focus more on life cycle assessment used to calculate carbon footprints, water footprints or other types of footprints. So, sustainability is broad,” Thrane adds.

“A big trend now, and I expect for years to come, is reducing meat consumption and replacing it with vegetable proteins. Consumers are looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint by replacing animal derived proteins. This comes as part of a more flexitarian diet, and I think that it is one of the areas in which consumers can make a really big difference.”

According to Thrane, “Food contributes to about 30% of all human generated greenhouse gas emissions – and if we look at fresh water or land use the percent is even higher”.

“There is clearly a bigger demand for vegetable proteins,” he continues, “Due to a rise in flexitarian lifestyles and the trend towards replacing meat protein with other sources of protein. We already have many solutions - there’s a big potential in using vegetable proteins and people need to realize that,” Thrane adds. 

The same goes for insect protein, it has a potential to be a good and environmentally friendly protein source. He says: “You have much less land and water use and typically a lower carbon footprint. Insect proteins are clearly among the most environmental friendly types of animal proteins at the moment.”

“We are all aware of population growth, combine that with the fact that we will become richer and that we can afford more protein in general, our diets will change and this will leave a tremendous pressure on the planet. So some huge challenges lie ahead,” he urges. 

For consumers who really want to make an impact in terms of sustainability, food is one of the places place where the biggest difference can be made. Thrane says: “Not only does food represent 30% of all human induced greenhouse gases, but we also waste 30 percent of the food produced – there are some staggering numbers within this area, but as awareness increases and solutions are developed, we will hopefully be able to reduce this significantly.”

“Sustainability is a big trend in the EU and to some extent the US – millennials think about the planet in a very different way to other generations. It was the UK that started carbon footprint labelling of food maybe 5 or 6 years back and this sends a clear message: that sustainability is being taken into account,” he states. 

“To be successful in the market place food companies should develop solutions that address health and the environment at the same time. Ultimately, solutions that address all three pillars of sustainability – people, planet and profit, have a bright future.” 

“I think that within the food sector you simply cannot talk about sustainability if you are not at the same time talking health,” he finalizes, “It has to go hand in hand.” 

by Elizabeth Green