Michael Patten, Glanbia’s Chief ESG and Corporate Affairs Officer, describes what it takes to deliver better nutrition responsibly.
Every industry has its particular ESG challenges. For food and beverage, it’s the scale of the industry and the fact that modern dietary preferences can have a high carbon footprint. Yet, as Michael Patten, Glanbia’s Chief ESG and Corporate Affairs Officer, says: “Food is not optional. One thing we do need to ensure is food security and food supplies.”
Glanbia takes the view that you cannot have healthy people without a healthy planet. “Our role is delivering better nutrition. From how we source our raw materials, to processes, emissions, water usage, our overall social and environmental impact, we’re about better nutrition in all its aspects,” he says.
Reducing emissions to curb climate change
The company has recently updated its ambitious sustainability targets which are aligned to the rigorous Science Based Targets initiative and the focus now is on driving action to achieve them. “Our team has been heavily focused on the data,” says Michael. “We’ve done the hard yards stage of deep thinking and analysis. We have now updated our targets to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030 in order to keep global temperature rises below 1.5°C, which is so important.”
“We intend to achieve 100 per cent renewable electricity across Glanbia by 2030,” he says, with 50 per cent coming from renewables by 2023, and a rapid transition by 2028.
Dairy is where the challenge is for the business and work on Scope 3 is ongoing. “Dairy production is responsible for most of the emissions in our total supply chain,” Michael says. “So, fix that, and we make the biggest difference to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.”
A significant move away from the take-make-waste model
Producing less waste sits at the heart of a low-carbon economy and Glanbia is taking a more circular approach to packaging and the use of resources such as water in regions where it’s scarce. Since 2015, Glanbia has reduced fresh water consumption intensity by about 17 per cent. “We are now focusing on a further 10 per cent absolute reduction of fresh water use by 2025. That is an annualised saving of more than 500 million litres of water each year,” says Michael.
“We’ve become very good at water recovery and recycling,” says Michael. “When you process raw milk you generate a considerable volume of what we call ‘polished’ water – milk after the extraction of fats, proteins and nutritional elements.
“Our team has been working on reusing polished water in our processes, then cleaning it again before it returns to the environment,” he says. Glanbia is now a net producer of water at its joint venture in Michigan. In Idaho, polished water irrigates crops to produce feed for dairy cattle before being captured, cleaned and reused, in a sustainable cycle.
Glanbia has upgraded its zero waste to landfill target to achieve TRUE certification. “TRUE targets absolute waste reduction and we have committed that, by 2025, all our sites across Glanbia will be certified by TRUE,” says Michael. In addition Glanbia is seeking to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030. The ambition is for consumer packaging to be 100 per cent recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2030. More work has gone into making sure Glanbia Performance Nutrition’s recyclable iconic black tub is correctly picked up by recycling companies. The tub is now certified by How2Recycle, one of the leading sustainability standards companies in the US. Infrared detectors can pick out recyclable plastic printed with near-infrared (NIR) inks from other debris recycling centres and divert them to be shredded, melted down and turned into pellets that are the building blocks for new products. Food tubs printed with NIR inks are finding a second life in drainage pipes and garden furniture.
“These are essentially cameos of things we’re doing. Small changes that can make a massive difference. But our job of work is so much greater than that,” Michael says. “It’s deeply complex. Because you’re dealing with a whole series of interdependent factors.”
Leveraging the supply chain for ESG impact
“Nearly 90 per cent of emissions in our value chain are in our supply chain. They’re not inside our own four walls,” says Michael. “You have to take a whole-industry view of your value chain to really understand where you are and work in partnership with suppliers and the wider industry.”
Glanbia has already successfully estimated the carbon footprint all its direct supplier farms and 100 per cent of the US farmers supplying the business have signed up to the National Milk Producers Federation’s Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) system for animal care, environmental stewardship and workforce development. “Better Dairy is how we describe it. We’re working through the US Dairy Sustainability Initiative and the net zero commitment on industry commitment to action that makes sense for all stakeholders.”
“In our B2B ingredients business there is a relationship back to the farm, which is really important, and in our consumer branded business, there’s a relationship with the consumer through packaging and recycling. What the businesses share most is process excellence.
“Both are very focused on: ‘What are our efficiencies, what are our emissions, how can we get them down?’ So I tend to look at our B2B business and our branded business as a continuum of a value chain.”
A whole-organisation, ESG-aware mindset
Committing to ESG targets has an impact on every area of the business, from diversity and inclusion to acquisitions. “The mindset change that comes when an organisation adopts into this space is very important,” says Michael. Of course, more progress must be made. “We want to make the right decisions,” says Michael. “That commitment and mindset are what really will drive Glanbia forward.”