Arla Foods launches new customer programme and accelerates on-farm sustainability efforts

As part of Arla’s ambition to lead in a more climate-efficient dairy production, the cooperative now launches a new customer programme that simultaneously accelerate sustainability efforts on farm and help customers achieve their reduction targets for scope 3. The programme will be launched the UK first where commercial agreements covering more than 1 billion kilos of milk is already in place.

More and more of Arla’s retail and foodservice customers are getting their climate ambitions approved by The Science Based Targets Initiative which means an increasing focus on reducing their scope 3 emissions. And for some customers, dairy constitutes a significant part of their scope 3.

That’s why Arla is now combining the data from its Climate Check programme and Sustainability Incentive Model to partner with customers in the new Customer Sustainability Programme where customers can invest in on-farm sustainability efforts and directly contribute to the reduction of Arla’s emissions, which is the customers’ scope 3.

“Driving down scope 3 emissions is another way of bringing value to our customers, and we want to be a strategic partner for them in that journey. Dairy is an important category for our retail and foodservice customers, and for some of them, emissions from dairy constitute a significant part of their scope 3 emissions. Currently, this translates into increased interest in entering into partnerships, which we welcome. Our scope 3 leadership also provides us with new commercial and strategic opportunities for our milk pool,” says COO and Member of Executive Board, Peter Giørtz-Carlsen.

Customers in closer partnership for Arla farmers’ sustainability work

Customers who have signed up to the Customer Sustainability Programme will partner with Arla, seeing extra money go into the cooperative’s ongoing efforts to reduce emissions on-farm. Arla will also run projects with the participating customers and their aligned Arla farmers that look to reduce on-farm emissions through new research and testing new innovations for potential scaling within areas such as feed additives, herd genetics, biodiversity, fertilizer use etc.

As part of the programme customers get:

• A closer link to Arla’s farmer owners through on-farm R&D projects and pilots

• Access to more accurate on-farm data with CO2 footprint per kg/milk and customised data reports

• Claimable CO2e reductions for their ESG reporting

The Sustainability Customer Programme will be launched firstly in the UK where the first contracts with customers Aldi, Asda, Morrisons and Starbucks™ covering more than 1 billion kilos of milk is already in place. The programme will be rolled out across Arla’s core European markets during 2024.

“In our strategy we focus extensively on driving down our on-farm scope 3 emissions as they make up the vast majority of our emissions. In Arla, the breakthroughs are happening now. We believe we have found an impactful route and levers to drive down scope 3 emissions, and we are strongly committed to this effort as it benefits the planet and brings value to our customers. But we do it for dairy too – dairy provides significant nutritional benefits to human diet, which must not be jeopardized due to its impact on climate and the environment,” says Peter Giørtz-Carlsen.

The milk pool available to the customers in the programme is covered by Arla’s Climate Check programme and is also part of the new Sustainability Incentive Model which was developed in close collaboration with the approx. 8,500 farmer owners in Arla. In the model, Arla has earmarked up to 500m EUR annually until 2030 to reward and incentivise climate initiatives on farm via a new point-based supplement to the monthly milk price.