meadow foods

Since 2018, Meadow Foods has worked with its farmers to reduce carbon footprints by 21%

Meadow Foods has set out plans to produce the lowest carbon footprint milk in the UK.

The dairy ingredients supplier has partnered with Altruistiq, a data management platform, to measure accurate emissions data to speed up its sustainability agenda.

Since 2018, Meadow Foods has worked with its farmers to reduce their carbon footprint by 21%, making their total footprint some 64% lower than the global average and 16% lower than the UK average for a litre of milk, it claimed.

This was achieved with the support of Altruistiq’s tool for farmer engagement. It provided the supplier with quantifiable carbon data and has identified the largest and most concentrated sources of emission to refine the business’s decarbonisation initiatives.

“We knew that one of the keys to reaching our ambitious sustainability goals was to focus on data measurement,” said Alun Lewis, head of sustainability at Meadow Foods. “Altruistiq has taken a complex situation and has made the process of capturing and understanding Meadow Foods’ data much easier.”

It is now actively accelerating its sustainability agenda. Reporting on product-level emissions data is a core component.

The data analysis has identified the carbon footprint of individual products and ingredients, which Meadow Foods said it had then been able to use to lead projects with new and existing partners to cost-effectively reduce their shared carbon footprint while maintaining profitability.

“This information allows us to work better with our customers on identifying and reducing CO2 emissions and will ultimately help us meet our ambitious target of becoming the lowest carbon dairy in the UK,” added Lewis.

In addition, Meadow Foods is planning to launch a farmer engagement programme early next year through a partnership with Harper Adams University. The business hopes to become an associate with the university’s School of Sustainable Food and Farming and be at the forefront of innovations to be passed on to farmers.