Helping the dairy industry become more sustainable
As a provider of products and services to dairy farmers all around the world, DeLaval can help the dairy industry work towards a sustainable future.
This means providing products and solutions that improve working conditions for farmers and ensuring that animals are well taken care of, while at the same time reducing the environmental impact on every farm and ensuring its long-term success. Our approach to sustainability has three main perspectives – Environment, Food Safety & Animal Welfare and Social & Economic.
Environment
We are committed to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, ensuring water is used responsibly, and reducing energy and waste. We have a long history of developing products and solutions that reduce the environmental impact of every litre of milk produced and improving efficiency and milk yield on farms.
Food Safety & Animal Welfare
We focus on animal welfare and cow longevity by promoting and enabling best management practices. A healthy animal provides more milk, at better quality and for more years.
Our approach enables us to meet all regulations regarding milk quality to ensure food safety.
Social & Economic
We aim to be a modern, diverse and inclusive employer to attract and retain the talent we need to achieve our strategic ambitions. We also promote the health and safety of our employees and the farmer communities in which we operate. Our approach helps both our customers and DeLaval to maintain a profitable business in the long term.
Animal welfare is key
Animal welfare is an essential part of a sustainable dairy farm, and our products and services are developed with cow health and welfare in focus.
“Every farmer wants healthy animals that provide more milk, at better quality and for more years,” says Cecilia Bågenvik, VP Animal Intelligence & Welfare Solutions. “Our role at DeLaval is to give the farmer the tools to make this happen through various features and measures that for example allow early detection of disease that can avoid milk loss and help to reduce the use of antibiotics. We always strive to create comfortable and stress-free environments for the animals. What’s good for the animals is good for the farm and the profitability of our customers.”
DeLaval Sustainability Group
We now have a dedicated team of ten people appointed by group management to ensure that we deliver on our sustainability promises and bring DeLaval closer to reaching its vision of making sustainable food production possible.
Several team members have been involved with sustainability at DeLaval for many years but in 2021, we formally created this team to better focus our efforts. The diverse team includes senior personnel from seven different countries and is led by our Head of Sustainability, Fabian Bernal.
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
Everything we do at DeLaval connects directly to the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals. We see that we can contribute to eight of these goals. Goal number 17 – partnerships, applies to everything we do. The remaining goals are linked to our focus areas in the following ways.
Our greenhouse gas emissions
In terms of environmental sustainability, we work mainly with the three established ‘scopes’ of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and an additional fourth scope that looks at how we can help farmers reduce their emissions.
The greatest climate impact DeLaval can have is to help farmers do more with less, which reduces their emissions.
