Sustainability
Sustainability for us is about doing more with less and doing it well
For our customers, it means helping them reduce the environmental impact of every litre of milk produced in a way that is good for the animal and for anyone working on a farm. Through our milking solutions in automation, digitalisation, and advisory services, we can improve efficiency and increase animal welfare for our customers. This, in turn, leads to reduced cost and lower greenhouse gas emissions per litre of milk produced.
Internally, it's about innovating to achieve these goals, but also minimising our CO2e emissions and waste, and working towards a circular approach. We do this while providing decent working conditions in an inclusive company that manages and monitors risks in our supply chain connected to environmental impact and human rights.
We have five pillars of sustainability with innovation as the enabler, and based on our customers' main challenges and our double materiality analysis, we identified ten key topics of priority and have set coherent targets.
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, while developing products and services with cow health and welfare in focus.
People
We innovate to provide solutions that make dairy farmers’ lives easier and more profitable. We are working for social and human rights in our supply chain through a sustainable sourcing program that is being implemented. Internally, we use a Corporate Governance framework as a baseline for how we act in our operations worldwide.
How we help our farmers run more sustainable operations
Case study
Cows come first in Kansas
The McCarty’s began farming over 100 years ago with just a handful of cows. Today, four generations later, their operations span across the American mid-west, milking some 19,000 cows in four farms on top of their heifer rearing operations. But regardless of the size, the same focus on animal welfare has always been there.
Case study
Sustainable milk production with John Deere and DeLaval
John Deere and DeLaval joins efforts to create the Milk Sustainability Center (MSC), a digital eco-system to help dairy farmers improve the efficiency and sustainability of their operations. The eco-system will be open for partners to join, with the objective of providing farmers with data needed for a holistic view of the dairy operations.
Good governance
To ensure good governance we have a Corporate Governance Framework at DeLaval that sets the baseline for how we act in our operations worldwide, both internally and in our external relations. Outside the framework, DeLaval also has a number of policies, procedures and guidelines to govern the business and ensure a common way of working. The framework is key to the sustainable and successful business of DeLaval.