Fonterra celebrates coal free manufacturing in the North Island
Image credit: Fonterra
One year on from the release of its climate roadmap, Fonterra is on track to meet its climate targets and coal free in its North Island manufacturing, the company says. The co-op turned off the coal boiler at its Waitoa site this month, its last in the North Island, marking a significant milestone in achieving its emissions reduction targets outlined in its Climate Roadmap released in November 2023.
Fonterra director of sustainability Charlotte Rutherford says the roadmap is central to guiding Fonterra’s journey toward achieving its near-term climate targets and ambition to be net zero by 2050.
“We’ve made a great start, while progress may not be linear, we are on track to meet these targets. I’m particularly proud of the work the team has done to achieve Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) validation, the progress in providing tools and services for farmers, and the efforts of decarbonising our manufacturing sites.
“While it may be one year on from the release of our roadmap, we have been focused on reducing our emissions, particularly from our manufacturing and operations, for some time now and being free of coal in our North Island manufacturing is something the team should be proud of.”
This year alone, three renewable energy projects at Edendale, Hautapu, and Clandeboye have reduced emissions by a total of 62,500 tonnes, equivalent to taking 27,750 cars off the road.
Rutherford says that equally important has been the work over the past year to lay the foundations for supporting farmers in reducing their emissions.
“Over the past 12 months our farmer facing teams have been working on a range of tools and services for farmers, including targeted conversations to understand what the future may look like, and mapping tools that will help identify woody vegetation for carbon sequestration.”
Other milestones over the last 12 months include:
- Validation of the co-op’s near term targets by SBTi.
- 93% of Fonterra New Zealand farms now have Farm Environment Plans, up from 85% 12 months ago.
- Continued investment in AgriZeroNZ who have committed NZ$34 million to emissions reduction technologies and R&D including Ruminant BioTech‘s methane inhibitor, BioLumic‘s UV seed treatment, ArkeaBio‘s methane vaccine and Hoofprint Biome‘s gut health supplements.
- In an industry first, the co-op launched the NZMP Carbon Footprinter emissions calculator in February, helping customers understand the average emissions of major New Zealand-sourced NZMP products, including the emissions from shipping to key destinations around the world. Since launch there has been over 4,000 users of the tool.
