Stockholm / SE. (lc) Lantmännen Cerealia is now taking an important step in its sustainability work and joins SBTi, Science Based Target’s initiative. With Swedish grain as a base in the offer, and as a leading supplier of flour, grains and pasta to Nordic bakeries, food industry, the food service market and to retail chains, the focus on long-term sustainable production is integral to Lantmännen Cerealia.
Working for long-term sustainable production and well-considered use of resources are well-embedded parameters in Lantmännen Cerealia’s business goals. As part of the Lantmännen Group, owned by 19,000 Swedish farmers, there is a strong focus on sustainability in order to enable and drive the development towards the farming of the future and a sustainable food supply. One example is the Climate and Nature program. Grain cultivated in line with the program has about 30 percent lower climate impact than conventional grain. The demand for grain from the program is increasing, and the shift has resulted in reduced emissions of CO2 equivalent to close to 60,000 tons since the program was introduced in 2015.
Lantmännen Cerealia has its core business in the Nordic region, whereby processing locally grown grain, it is a leading supplier to bakeries and the food industry, the food service market and to retail chains. Well-known brands in Sweden are AXA, Kungsörnen, Start, GoGreen, FinnCrisp and Gooh.
«Together in Lantmännen, we have for a long time had an ambitious sustainability agenda and goals to reduce the environmental and climate impact of our operations. This is an area where all parts of society need to collaborate, and the business sector is today crucial for the current, positive, development. We welcome the SBT initiative, which gives all actors a common frame from which to accelerate the development towards a sustainable society further,» says Karolina Valdemarsson, CEO of Lantmännen Cerealia Sweden.
The SBT initiative offers a methodology and framework that guide companies to set science-based emissions targets that contribute to limited global warming in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement. The initiative is a collaboration between the UN Global Compact, CDP, the World Resources Institute and the World Wide Fund for Nature.
«We see great advantages in working with the framework that SBTi constitutes. In addition to promoting clear and scientifically based goals to be developed and followed up upon, it also constitutes a common frame of reference in dialogue with both suppliers and customers. To respond to the climate issue, we need to make a difference as a system, not just as individual companies, and SBTi can become a valuable lever,» says Karolina Valdemarsson.
Lantmännen’s goals for drastically reducing the climate impact from both primary production, own production and transport remain in parallel with the new goals now being developed and validated by SBTi.
