Information on your carbon footprint is an important first step to reducing it. Knowing your emissions sources helps you decide which levers to pull to have the most impact, ultimately helping our community as they seek to run their businesses in truly sustainable ways.
Increasingly though, stakeholders expect independent verification. Doing business is depending more and more on a company’s sustainability credentials, and customers want to know they are sourcing from responsible suppliers. This growing demand is stimulating a wide range of initiatives offering to measure a company’s carbon footprint (CFP), and we can only expect the demand for credible and reliable CFP auditing to increase.
As GMP+ International responds to the demands of our community to enable sustainability, we believe we can best support the animal feed chain in this space by setting the standard for measuring the carbon footprint of animal feed.
Independent certification
Beginning in the Netherlands and working with market partners, our intention is to set an unambiguous and clear standard that can be applied in practice.
We have announced a pilot, and as of 01 January 2024 companies in the Netherlands can be the first to participate in, and help us build, the new GMP+ FRA standard for calculating the CFP of feed. Specifically, it will ensure that the input used by compound feed companies for calculating the CFP is correct, and that the calculation method has been applied properly.
Our starting point is the Dutch instrument for CFP calculations: the ‘Nevedi CFP calculation protocol’. This instrument was specifically developed for the Dutch market and uses default CFP data that are specific to the Netherlands. As we test and develop our standard further, in accordance with the methodology of the PEFCR Feed for food-producing animals, we will roll it out to companies in other countries.
Getting going
For companies who are maybe making their first steps on their sustainability journey, it is easy to be overwhelmed. Sustainability can be a complex and nuanced field, with many different actors and service providers applying different approaches. Even when calculating a carbon footprint, you could ask three different companies and get three different answers.
But perfection is not the goal here, progress is. We should not wait for all the answers before trying to do the right thing. We must start now, learn from our experience as we go, and work to make our sector more sustainable.
For GMP+ International, we want to create a level playing field through a workable standard that meets the needs of our community and their stakeholders. If you are operating in the Netherlands, I hope you will join from the start and help us define a standard that truly works. If you are outside of the Netherlands, we will soon be establishing an international working group to define how the standard can apply in other countries - and we would like you to be involved.
If you want to be involved, please get in touch with our team using the form below.