Sustainability

The Challenge

Climate change is the biggest danger facing humankind and is an existential threat for millions of people. Even in 2023 we have yet to put ourselves on a pathway that will preserve our planet, our people, our plants and species as we know it.

Golden Acre Foods recognise that they, along with other businesses, consumers and governments, have to radically change the ways in which we live and work in order to achieve the sharp reductions in carbon emissions that are needed.

They call on every player in the food industry around the world to do their utmost to develop and deploy new ways that will allow our planet to flourish once again.

Net Zero

Golden Acre Foods commit to be net zero in their own emissions (scopes 1 & 2) by 2030. They commit to be net zero across their full supply chain (scopes 1, 2 & 3) by 2040.

Furthermore, they commit to reducing their emissions per tonne of product sold by 50% by 2030 and by 90% by 2040. As part of this, they also commit to the science-based carbon initiative.

In stating their net zero targets, they pledge to work tirelessly and innovatively in order to find the means to produce and transport their food production with zero or fractional emissions.

Key in this process are the availability of renewable energies and freight transport developments, including reliable rail capacity and renewable power for road freight. They will work closely with their partners in the supply chain to achieve this.

Offsetting and Carbon Neutrality

Carbon neutral is about offsetting an organisation’s carbon emissions.

Unfortunately, offsets often relate to carbon absorption over a number of future years while the emissions are causing immediate damage to the planet. It is widely recognised that being carbon neutral is not enough: we have to reduce our actual emissions.

That is not to say that offsets are not valuable in and of themselves. In particular, we need to develop our offset understanding in order to evaluate which methods are the most worthwhile and should be scaled up.

In the last two years Golden Acre has undertaken a number of exciting offset projects with mangrove nurseries, coastal protection, oyster beds and tree planting.