May 18, 2021

Programme confirms Arla dairy producers to be one of world's most climate efficient farmers

Arla's Climate Checks programme had confirmed that Arla farmers are among the most climate efficient dairy farmers in the world, according to the Danish cooperative.

The programme provides Arla farmers a clear blueprint of what will drive further reductions of greenhouse gas emissions on their farms over the next decade. 

For the last decades, Arla farmers have been working steadily towards sustainable farming and implementing green opportunities on their farms, such as circular farming practices, renewable energy and biodiversity.

A total of 7,986 Arla farms across seven European countries had concluded an assessment, using the cooperative's new standardised tool for identifying carbon footprint. 

 "We have made a major investment in developing and implementing a solid model for measuring climate impact on a dairy farm," said Arla Foods chairman Jan Toft Nørgaard. "The unique data set that Arla farmers have now created clearly shows which activities will accelerate our reductions over the next decade. We will use this to decarbonise our farms at a faster pace and share our findings with stakeholders to help drive an effective transition for the whole industry. There's a huge amount of value in this for all of us."

"A year ago, we published a report for Arla Foods aiming at going beyond fact checking and turning the existing evidence into a practical, solution-focused pathway towards what could be a more sustainable dairy industry," said Céline Charveriat, executive director of independent sustainability thinktank, the Institute for Environmental Policy (IEEP).

"It is certainly now very encouraging to see Arla taking the initiative to put sustainability at the core of their decision making and developing tools to measure their impact on the ground and adapt their practices. These sorts of initiatives can be an example for the dairy industry."

- Arla