In 2018, we conducted our own Life Cycle Assessment in order to benchmark where we stand. This step was important for us to better understand where and how we can reduce our environmental impacts on farm as well as in the mill.
We looked specifically at the following two areas:
The benchmarking exercise was conducted by the Australian LCA and agricultural environmental expert Dr. Stephen Wiedemann and his team from Integrity AG & Environment.
Stephen’s key areas of expertise include environmental management, waste and nutrient management, carbon accounting and ERF projects, LCA and resource use efficiency, environmental guideline development and agricultural extension.
Stephen has conducted fundamental LCA research for the wool industry and is an expert advisor to the International Wool Textile Organisation (IWTO).
Benchmarking our entire operation gave us many new insights and ideas on how we can continue our efforts in constantly improving ourselves and reducing our environmental footprint. With these new insights and ideas, we have updated our strategy and have started working on implementing our short, medium and long term environmental goals.
The projects we have initiated vary from small to large and affect our farms and our mill. Watch this space to learn more as we complete our new initiatives.
While some projects will take longer to implement, we already wanted to do something now to reduce our footprint. That is why we invested in offsetting our emissions. See below for more details.
The benchmarking analysis provided us with the exact number of greenhouse gas emissions. This enables us to continuously improve on reducing our emissions and we are busy implementing the necessary steps. However, in the meantime, we already want to reduce our environmental impact. By knowing exactly how much we emit, we can offset these emissions by investing into carbon positive projects. In April 2019, we have officially partnered with Numerco supporting a carbon sequestration project in Uruguay.
Numerco is an award-winning supply company specializing in carbon offsetting and renewable energy products, with an in-depth knowledge of regional programmes and industry-wide emissions schemes. As one of the largest suppliers in the market, Numerco has been assisting over 200 clients in 38 different countries to meet their climate and sustainability goals. Numerco provides end-to-end solutions by calculating carbon footprints, developing internal strategies and supplying brand-aligned offsets for carbon neutrality & compliance purposes. Its services encompass the full project life cycles as well as developing communication and marketing material for emission reduction initiatives. Numerco continues to be a prominent and trusted partner in the evolving environmental commodity markets and work with a diverse range of corporate customers on embedding supply chain sustainability and driving climate ambitions.
Find out more about Numerco here.
This post is also available in: Spanish
