Our collaboration with Arla began in 2011 with a carbon footprint of Arla’s milk production in Denmark and Sweden. This work has since expanded and been updated through several iterations into an advanced dairy LCA model. Arla uses this model for baselines and benchmarks of its sustainability goals, as well as a tool for individual farmers to understand where their emissions originate.
Today, the dairy LCA model powers Arla’s FarmAhead™ Check tool, which enables 7,986 farmers across seven European countries to calculate the exact GHG footprint of 1 kg of raw milk from their specific farm.
The tool accounts for over 200 farm inputs, including cow feed, fertiliser use, cattle breeds, manure treatment technologies such as biogas, and energy and fuel consumption. These inputs are combined in the LCA model to produce a farm-specific carbon footprint of the milk.
We continuously update and maintain the LCA model to improve the level of detail in the background data and models, as well as incorporating the best techniques for mitigating GHG emissions in milk production.
This design offers Arla full transparency and data autonomy.
The FarmAhead™ Check tool allows Arla to monitor the progress of its climate strategy and assist farmers in reducing emissions by spotting the most effective reductions.
81% of Arla’s total corporate emissions come from its farmers,[1] and the LCA tool provides unprecedented data transparency into where the emissions originate and how top-performing farmers can lead the way for others to do the same.
By 2022, 99% of Arla’s owner milk volume had been assessed by the FarmAhead™ Check tool. The tool makes it possible for Arla to create a data driven and personalised action plan for each farmer to reduce their climate footprint even further.
Our model includes new GHG mitigation technologies as they become relevant for the farmers, including manure acidification and nitrification inhibitors.
[1] https://www.arla.com/49b894/globalassets/arla-global/sustainability/climate-ambition/arla-climate-ambitions-2030-and-2050-2023.pdf p. 7
This report presents a summary of a detailed life cycle assessment (LCA) study of palm oil production at United Plantations Berhad (Teluk Intan, Malaysia). LCA is a technique to assess environmental impacts associated with all the life cycle stages of a product or service from ‘cradle to grave’. The current study is a desk‐study performed on the distance, carried out January to March 2024, and it builds on top of six other large studies carried out for United Plantations in 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2020, and 2023. The study in 2008 was the first LCA of palm oil ever, which is fully compliant with and critical reviewed according to the international standards on LCA: ISO 14040 and 14044.
The environmental impact of palm oil is presented as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, i.e. carbon footprint, as well as for a number of other impact categories such as biodiversity, respiratory effects and toxicity. The environmental impacts relate to the life cycle of palm oil from cultivation to the gate of the refinery, including all upstream emissions, e.g. from the production of fertilisers, fuels and machinery. The results are shown per kg of refined palm oil, as well as for United Plantations total product portfolio (corporate GHG footprint).
Over the last decades, United Plantations Berhad has worked intensively in reducing their environmental impacts. The effect of this work is illustrated by tracking the carbon footprint for the company’s production of palm oil from 2004 to 2023.
The primary purpose of the LCA is to document and assess the environmental impacts from the production of palm oil at United Plantations Berhad. Secondly, the purpose is to follow over time the GHG emissions from the production of palm oil at United Plantations Berhad. Thirdly, to quantify the absolute impact of United Plantations’ product portfolio, fourthly, to compare United Plantation’s production of palm oil with average Malaysian/Indonesian palm oil and other major vegetable oils, and fifthly, to analyse improvement options for United Plantation’s production of palm oil.
The LCA tool makes it possible for horticultures in Denmark to calculate the environmental impacts from each crop. The intended application for Danish Horticulture (Dansk Gartneri), was to identify impacts and hotspots and use the outcome to substantiate their ongoing work on reducing the impacts from the Danish horticultural production. The tool is prepared for both organic and conventional cultivation practices. Furthermore, there are both greenhouse and free range production methods included.
The horticulture-specific calculator includes impacts for the production and upstream in the life cycle, including relevant processing and packaging. Results are given per ton crop at the greenhouse gate using Stepwise as method or as impacts pr. hectare or as a total for each holding studied.
This project is representative of the type of tools we customise for the our clients, who want multiple producers within the same sector to get reliable and accurate impacts for their individual production. Hence, the results are useful for decision making in future strategies and goals for each primary producer as well as the organisation, Danish Horticulture.
This project developed a methodology and data for calculating the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, nitrogen and phosphate leached to water, and phosphate leftover in the soil, related to the cultivation of crops. The GHG emissions include dinitrogen monoxide, ammonia, nitrogen oxides, and carbon dioxide. These emissions, leaches, and leftovers were calculated using a model described by the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC). The calculations are summarised in a report (Schmidt J and Sørensen J I (2022). LCA Crop Database Methodology Report), where the inputs and the outputs of the model are also outlined.
This report presents the methodology and data for calculating the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, nitrogen and phosphate leached to water, and phosphate leftover in the soil, related to the cultivation of crops. The GHG emissions include dinitrogen monoxide, ammonia, nitrogen oxides, and carbon dioxide.
The emissions, leaches, and leftovers are calculated using a model described by the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC). Following the calculations are a summary where the inputs and the outputs of the model are outlined.
The aim of the project was to build a specific LCA model and Excel tool for MAVASOL to calculate the potential GHG emission savings from their sand recovery system (SRS) for dairy farms. This was done by comparing two alternative scenarios with and without the sand recovery system.
This report is prepared for Concito by 2.-0 LCA consultants January 2020 to February 2021. The report is the technical documentation of The Big Climate Database (“Den store klimadatabase”), which is published by Concito and funded by the Salling Foundations. It should be noted that all linked LCA activities and their flows can be accessed on the webpage: http://denstoreklimadatabase.dk/
