Complete visibility of Van Loon Group’s carbon impact from meat products on the horizon

From July, Dutch meat business Van Loon Group will start using a blockchain and CO₂ footprint calculator from ImpactBuying, an independent data platform.

“We are using the blockchain step by step, first we will connect all our pig farmers and chain partners of Pig at Best, such as feed suppliers, genetics suppliers and veterinary practices. Our other meat chains will follow later. This way, data collection is automated as much as possible and the data is independently validated,” explains Roland van Loon, CTO Van Loon Group and responsible for sustainability.

At the beginning of this year, Van Loon Group received approval from the Science Based Target initiative for its CO₂ reduction target towards 2030. With these ambitious goals, Van Loon Group complies with the Paris climate agreement to reduce global warming soil to a maximum of 1.5°C.

“The largest CO₂ emissions come from indirect greenhouse gas emissions in the value chain outside our company (scope 3). We have committed to reducing these greenhouse gas emissions: 46% for fossil emissions and 33% for FLAG emissions ,” says Roland van Loon.

In 2019, Van Loon Group carried out a baseline measurement at 38 of its pig farmers and mapped their complete CO₂ footprint. In recent years, Van Loon Group has already taken major steps in the field of better feed conversion, animal health and hygiene management. Van Loon Group will calculate the CO₂ footprint of all its pig farmers annually and report on the reduction achieved.

Roland van Loon says the company works with its livestock farmers and chain partners to further make the meat chains more sustainable.

“Together we ensure that sustainable meat remains accessible to everyone. Using the calculator we can provide insight into the CO₂ footprint at product level. This way we will soon be able to provide our customers with insight into the CO₂ footprint of the (pork) meat products they purchase from us. They can in turn share this information with the consumer. Of course, it is up to our customers whether and how they want to make this clear per product. In any case, it will ensure more transparency in the chain and together we will enable consumers to make their own choices for the tastiest and most sustainable meat products.”

Leontien Hasselman-Plugge, CEO ImpactBuying, who has a strong focus on the global food sector, says: “The standard has now been definitively set now that several actors in the meat chain are going to use both this WUR calculation method and the calculator on a large scale. The great thing about this calculator is that it calculates with dynamic source data that comes from all chain partners via JoinData. This data feeds the blockchain and JoinData controls the permissions for who can use what data and for what purposes. This has created an impetus for sharing and valuing data in a sector that previously did not do so.”

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