Upfield reveals plant-based spreads save 6 million metric tons of CO2 annually

29 Jul 2021 --- At the heels of the UN Food Systems Pre-Summit, Upfield has published data revealing that consumers and chefs – using their plant-based butters, margarines and spreads instead of dairy butter – have avoided emitting an estimated six million metric tons of CO2-equivalent within 12 months.

This “Upside” – referring to “emissions savings” – is at the same amount of emissions that would be avoided by growing 100 million tree seedlings over the period of ten years, highlights Upfield. This amount is also double the Netherlands-based company’s operational and supply chain emissions (three million metric tons) in 2020.

Necessitating a plant-based shift
The data gathered helps demonstrate that choosing just one company’s plant-based products can help consumers save emissions by the same magnitude as planting a large forest, highlights Sally Smith, head of sustainability at Upfield. “The scientific consensus is that we need a plant-based shift to tackle the crisis in climate and nature.”

“We encourage policymakers and stakeholders to consider the insight from this approach and its implications for sustainable diets worldwide,” she stresses.

“At Upfield, we are committed to putting climate footprint information on pack as a way to help consumers make active choices to help reduce the carbon impact of their diets and we’d love to see other food businesses doing the same.”

Footprinting methodology
“The Upside” was estimated by Anthesis, a leading global sustainability consultancy, using its Portfolio Footprinting Methodology.

Flora plant butter by Upfield. (Credit: Upfield)This methodology analyzes peer-reviewed and published Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) data, which measures the total environmental impact of a product, including agricultural inputs, ingredient production, manufacture, packaging, transport and usage.

It then scales up this information into a portfolio based on sales data and the theoretical assumption that consumers and chefs bought plant-based butters, margarines and spreads instead of dairy butter.

The original Upfield product LCA data also showed that across Europe and North America, Upfield’s plant-based margarines on average occupy two-thirds less land and use less than half the water when compared with the same amount of dairy butter.

“We’re excited to have worked with Upfield to develop a draft methodology that enables them to estimate the benefits of their plant-based product portfolios,” comments Simon Davis, Agrifood lead at Anthesis.

It is equally as exciting to have begun a process of developing something that can articulate the role plant-based products can have in food-system transformation, he says.

“We invite businesses, policymakers and stakeholders to help support and collaborate in order to refine the approach and look forward to the next stage in the journey.”

The average plant-based margarine or spread product is responsible for 70 percent lower emissions than dairy butter.“Better than net-zero”
Upfield notes that while delivering “The Upside” is essential, this doesn’t negate its business from reducing its own footprint. The company has set out a goal to reduce its own emissions to achieve “better than net-zero” emissions by 2050.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has advised that reducing agricultural emissions from cattle should be one of the immediate priorities to limit global warming as soon as possible.

Ingredient production largely accounts for emissions savings. Making dairy butter causes substantially damaging methane emissions from cows, in addition to growing crops for cattle feed, whereas plant-based production relies only on crops.

Notably, the average plant-based margarine or spread product is responsible for 70 percent lower emissions than dairy butter.

Among other launches this month, Butter Buds, a business specializing in dairy and non-dairy concentrates, developed an oil-based solution that allows manufacturers to replace block butter in many formulations, such as bakery products.

But over the last year, the rising wave of dairy alternatives’ commercial success has been fronted on several occasions by industry’s conventional dairy proponents.

Among other developments in this burgeoning space, Time-Travelling Milkman recently scaled up its plant-based fat ingredient for creamier, healthier dairy alternatives following new funding from Oost NL and SHIFT Invest.

By Benjamin Ferrer