“Sustainable dairy nutrition is critical to meeting societal health needs and tackling climate change,” says NZMP exec

31 May 2019 --- As consumer interest in ethical sourcing and sustainability gathers pace, Fonterra’s brand of dairy ingredients and solutions, NZMP, is well-positioned to provide information about where its ingredients come from and the practices taken to produce it. The importance of ensuring nutrition is sustainably produced is critical to meeting societal health needs, while also tackling climate change, according to Lara Phillips, Manager, Sustainable Value at NZMP. And, dairy has an important role in sustainable nutrition by providing a high density of nutrients for an efficient environmental footprint, she claims.

Speaking to FoodIngredientsFirst, Phillips explains what is driving the demand for clearer labels and greater transparency, and what role ingredients suppliers can play. 

“Consumer interest in ethical sourcing and sustainability is now evolving to extend throughout the whole supply chain. Consumers are looking for food that is not only healthy for them but also good for the planet, as well as for the people and animals that produced it,” she says. 

Products with a clear story about where they are from provide quality reassurance and can help drive consumer decisions at the retail shelf.

As part of the NZMP Provenance Program, the company has developed on-pack icons and supporting claims that can help customers communicate the unique New Zealand grass-fed dairy story to their consumers. 

“The certified grass-fed and pasture-raised claims can be made on many of the NZMP New Zealand sourced dairy ingredients along with the Non-GMO Project Verified claim being available,” Phillips continues. “Later in the year, we will launch a certified animal welfare standard to provide further assurances to consumers about the origin of their NZMP dairy ingredients,” she reveals.

 Lara Phillips, Manager, Sustainable Value at NZMPClimate change is a hot topic for the food industry with many key players setting ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, cut down on waste, use energy efficiently and streamline strategies. The aim is to tackle what is a profound challenge with direct implications on food safety, supply chains and raw materials. The notion of how big business will contribute to the fight against climate change is one of the key areas of debate this year. 

Working primarily in sustainability strategy and climate change policy, Phillips says Fonterra New Zealand farmers lead the world in many aspects of sustainable dairying, with high productivity, year-round pasture grazing and low use of supplementary feeds.

“As a result, our dairy has among the world’s lowest carbon footprint and among the highest rates of grass-feeding. We are also focused on continuing to reduce emissions, through investing in research and innovation, optimizing on-farm practices and driving operating efficiencies,” she explains. 

Reducing and eliminating food and packaging waste and increasing efficiency is critical to help meet the nutritional needs of a growing global population, as well as produce food sustainability and protect ecosystem services, Phillips continues. 

Fonterra, which is the world’s largest dairy exporter, has a number of programs underway to support recycling and waste minimization, including:

• A partnership with Future Post to recycle Anchor milk bottles into fence posts, which have a longer life than standard fence posts; 
• Turning by-products that would otherwise go to landfill (such as cheese trimmings, downgraded products or milk powder) into stock feeds, soaps and biofuels through its company NZAgbiz, which won highly commended at the 2018 Sustainable Business Network awards. Last year, 104 tons of metal, 60 tons of paper and cardboard and 120 tons of plastic were recycled.

Hitting sustainability targets
With regards to Fonterra and NZMP meeting a raft of 2020 sustainability targets, Phillips says they have a target to reduce energy intensity in New Zealand manufacturing by 20 percent. As of FY18, the company has already achieved a 19.3 percent reduction.

“In addition, Fonterra has targets to reduce global absolute manufacturing emissions by 30 percent by 2030 (from an FY15 baseline) and to achieve net zero by 2050,” Phillips continues. “We have a number of initiatives underway to achieve these targets and we will be reporting annually on our progress.”

“As Fonterra progresses, we will continue to review our targets, increasing ambition where we can, particularly with new technology and where the science suggests more action is needed,” she says. 

Over the past two years, Fonterra has released detailed sustainability reports, independently assured to the international reporting standards published by the global reporting initiative (GRI). 

“These reports provide a deep dive into how we approach sustainability at Fonterra and our sustainability performance across the supply chain. Going forward, we are working to further improve our data collection and reporting and engage with our supply chain to improve performance,” Phillips adds. 

Fonterra is among the lowest carbon footprint on-farm for global milk producers at 0.87kg CO2eq/kg FPCM compared to the world average of 1.39kg CO2eq/kg FPCM. This has been achieved through our farmers focussing on animal health and welfare and on-farm efficiencies which continues to remain a focus. 

The Fonterra and NZMP total carbon footprint is made up of approximately 89 percent on-farm and 10 percent in manufacturing. Only 1 percent of Fonterra’s footprint is from its international distribution, as it has invested in efficiencies across the distribution supply chain for many years, explains Phillips.

“A long-term priority for Fonterra is to support a transition to a low carbon future energy efficiency in our manufacturing sites and since 2003 we have achieved a 19.3 percent improvement in energy intensity,” she says. 

“By focusing on energy efficiency, it will help our transition to renewable fuel sources. Fonterra is looking at a range of innovations in this field including converting our Fonterra Brightwater site to co-fire with wood biomass which will reduce site emissions by 25 percent, successfully trialing wood pellets at our Te Awamutu site and a commitment to electrifying our Stirling site,” she concludes. 

In February, Fonterra also made its first foray into alternative proteins by being among the US$90 million Series A financing round for Motif Ingredients. While dairy nutrition will remain the core focus for the New Zealand-headquartered company, the minority stake move comes as part of a plan to “future proof their co-op for generations to come.”

The June issue of The World of Food Ingredients will feature interviews with several key ingredient players regarding their sustainability strategies and pathways towards 2020 targets.

By Gaynor Selby