The agrifood industry is at a pivotal moment, where sustainability is no longer a choice but essential for unlocking investments, complying with legislation, and ensuring products remain appealing to consumers. As companies in the sector strive to avoid greenwashing accusations, they face significant challenges in accurately measuring the environmental impact of food products, from farm to fork.
As one of the world’s largest animal nutrition and health solutions providers, dsm-firmenich understands the critical role the feed sector plays in tackling sustainability challenges and supporting effective reporting. What farm animals consume directly affects the environmental footprint throughout the entire value chain, making the feed sector crucial in supporting the sustainable production of meat, eggs, dairy, fish, and seafood products.
Expana spoke with Dr. David Nickell, Vice President of Sustainability & Business Solutions at dsm-firmenich Animal Nutrition and Health, to discuss the role of lifecycle assessments, where the biggest obstacles lie in this area, and the potential solutions. He reveals the key drivers of change reshaping the sector, from climate challenges to groundbreaking technologies, as well as how precision farming, accurate environmental reporting, and innovative solutions are helping agrifood businesses to meet their sustainability goals.
[Expana] What do you believe are the biggest drivers of change in agrifood sustainability?
[David Nickell] Some of the biggest drivers stem from climate change, especially as we experience fluctuating weather patterns, unpredictable seasons for growing and harvesting, and changing agricultural conditions. Climate change plays a critical role in determining how we approach food production, distribution, and consumer consumption. Furthermore, there is increasing attention on other environmental parameters beyond only carbon emissions, such as nitrogen and phosphorus flows to the environment associated with agricultural runoff and impacts on water resources, all of which sets more stringent boundaries on farming businesses and agrifood sustainability.
As a result, we are seeing growth in technological innovation to provide targeted solutions, with the increased adoption of precision nutrition and precision livestock farming tools. These technologies address how we can improve environmental impact and sustainable farming practices.
Corporate sustainability has become a critical driver, with many corporations striving to become environmentally conscious by setting Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals. Alongside, consumer awareness of sustainability continues to grow with more consumers opting for products that demonstrate sustainable and ethical production methods. This shift is nudging companies, particularly producers and the retail and grocery industries, to become more transparent about their sourcing, production processes and environmental impact and having a full and credible measurement of their Scope 3 emissions.
Government policies and regulations are accelerating sustainability efforts. The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is a key example of how businesses are making sustainability a core part of their strategy. Across the different regions mandatory sustainability reporting and an evolving framework for environmental responsibility are becoming a reality for business with major agrifood companies already making considerable progress in mapping their environmental footprints.
[Expana] What are the biggest challenges agrifood value chains face when it comes to sustainability and environmental reporting?
[David Nickell] Data collection presents a significant hurdle: reporting becomes flawed without reliable data. Therefore, ensuring consistency and accuracy of sustainability metrics is essential.
Companies are under scrutiny to avoid greenwashing. Whether because of tighter regulations to crack down on greenwashing in the EU or lawsuits elsewhere, companies are facing a clear push to become more transparent and credible when reporting their environmental credentials.
Facing this challenge requires every player in a value chain working together. Given how Scope 3 is defined, many players in the value chain (suppliers, processors, CPGs, retailers, banks, etc.) have a vested interest in more sustainable farming. We need to unlock new business opportunities to make the needed shifts and create a virtuous cycle. Once you have the right incentives in place and credible sustainability data in hand, then you can achieve genuine sustainability transformation.
Ultimately, there’s a real opportunity to deliver clear and reliable information to consumers so they can make more informed decisions that are both healthy for them and good for the planet.
[Expana] Environmental reporting is often viewed as an added expense for businesses. How can organisations transform sustainability reporting into a driver for new business opportunities and revenue growth?
[David Nickell] It is easy to underestimate the value of environmental reporting. We see it as a strategic tool for positioning a company as a sustainability-driven leader, to attract environmentally conscious consumers and investors, and to open new sources of value. And it’s increasingly becoming a requirement for companies seeking preferential access to capital.
Environmental reporting is a very good business diagnostic – it is often a good measure of the efficiency of a business and by making the invisible, visible allows companies to identify specific hotspots for improvement while providing a platform for new product innovation as well as new business opportunities within the value chain and strengthening stakeholder relationships.
Lastly, environmental reporting unlocks new sources of business value such as ecolabels, sustainable finance, and access to carbon markets.
[Expana] How can accurate environmental footprints be achieved across value chains?
[David Nickell] A collaborative approach is necessary across the value chain with a focus on sharing accurate, primary data-driven environmental insights that also respect the data owners’ data privacy.
By favoring primary data captured directly from the farm and the feed, we help everyone from farm-to-fork to be better placed to make progress on environmental targets. This also creates a playing field where the most sustainable companies are positioned to win. The key to achieving this is the implementation of life cycle assessments (LCA) that adhere to international standards for animal protein environmental foot-printing and are conducted through third-party verification. Standards like ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 for LCA ensure consistent methodological approaches, transparent reporting mechanisms and reliable comparable environmental performance measurements.
We created SustellTM to make environmental foot-printing easy and rewarding for companies across animal protein value chains. Sustell™ is the industry-leading life cycle assessment platform, that utilizes farm-level data to simplify the complexity of measuring, validating, and improving the environmental sustainability of animal protein – transparently, scientifically, farm by farm, system by system. Through API connections and partnerships with companies such as Deloitte, we deliver a scalable way for companies to succeed in their sustainability journeys with confidence.
[Expana] Why is primary data at the farm level critical for sustainability efforts for food producers and retailers further down the value chain? What obstacles arise in its collection and calculation?
[David Nickell] Every farm is different. Primary data collection utilized in LCA is crucial as it provides accurate and targeted insights, revealing environmental performance across farms, and guides businesses in their decision making and understanding of how and where to act to make improvements. Our research shows that efficient farms can have up to half the environmental footprint compared to those that are the least efficient.
Secondly, primary data supports the tracking of progress, supply chain management and incentive programs to ensure sustainability goals are met. Further down the value chain, it is critical to provide transparency with consumers who may be concerned with sustainability measurement and avoidance of greenwashing
The main challenges revolve around data collection, data quality and the ability to run scalable LCA. Access to LCA platforms that are data connected enabling easy, automated, and regular assessment of the environmental footprint, while ensuring that the data input meets the required level of quality and scrutiny are key. This can be solved by cloud-based platforms such as Sustell™, which connects with core data systems e.g. feed formulation and farm management software.
[Expana] What else is dsm-firmenich doing and to improve the sustainability of food?
[David Nickell] At dsm-firmenich Animal Nutrition & Health (ANH) we are committed to providing innovative solutions for sustainability – it is at the heart of our business.
We direct our efforts across six key sustainability platforms that are aligned with industry needs and the UN Sustainability Goals (SDGs). We focus on areas such as reducing the reliance on finite marine resources (our Veramaris business); reducing GHG, nitrogen and phosphorus emissions from livestock (our Bovaer business and application of precision nutrition); tackling anti-microbial resistance (AMR) through the application of novel eubiotic solutions; making efficient use of natural resources through innovative feed enzyme technologies; reducing food loss and waste by improving the inherent quality of animal protein especially related to Optimum Vitamin Nutrition; and improving the lifetime performance of animals by improving animal health and welfare at every stage of the lifecycle.
We have a diverse range of science-based products and services, including Sustell™ the leading life cycle assessment which allows users of the value chain to accurately measure and reduce the full environmental footprint of animal protein from farm to fork.
By offering feed and food producers the ability to map their environmental footprint along with the nutritional solutions to make farming more sustainable, we enable a more profitable, productive, and sustainable future for farming.
Published in association with dsm-firmenich
Written by
Olympia Theocharous
