Dairy giant Arla’s climate 'fairytale'

Arla’s environmental policies will not enable the company to reach its target of net zero by 2050, a new report published by the Changing Markets Foundation and Greenpeace Nordic has shown.

A new report by the green groups titled ‘Dairytales: Arla’s smokescreen for its lack of climate action’ reveals the failure of the multinational dairy giant to take sufficient steps to mitigate its own emissions, alongside its ongoing efforts to delay and derail wider transformation of the dairy industry and food systems.

The in-depth analysis of Arla’s sustainability policies and proposed initiatives suggests it would not meet the UN High-Level Expert Group’s guideline Integrity Matters, which provides 10 key recommendations for companies, financial institutions and other non-state entities to set credible and accountable net zero targets. 

Fairytale

According to the report, comparing Arla’s target with the nine relevant recommendations in the guideline reveals that it meets only one, partially meets five, and does not meet three. While Arla meets the recommendation regarding not using carbon credits, the company has previously come under fire for its use of them.

Alma Castrejon-Davila, senior campaigner, Changing Markets Foundation, said: “Arla has been selling us a fairytale for far too long and this report exposes the stark contradiction between Arla’s reputation as the poster child of dairy sustainability, and the reality of its failure to develop robust plans to reduce its emissions – in particular its methane emissions.

“As the world’s fifth largest dairy company, Arla has an opportunity to be a trailblazer in the sustainable transition of the dairy industry, but it instead chooses to greenwash its own activities, whilst actively employing resources to delay and derail the progress of the wider industry.

“We’re calling on Arla to set an ambitious methane target – at a minimum a 30 per cent reduction by 2030 – and shift to less and better dairy, as well as more plant-based products. Only by implementing these measures will the dairy giant be able to reduce its emissions at the pace and scale that are needed.”

Climate

Sandra Lamborn, a campaigner with Greenpeace Nordic, stated: “Arla works hard to appear caring about our climate and environment, but their actions often tell a different story. 

“Their FarmAhead tool is marketed as a sustainability model, but it pushes farmers into more intensive production, which isn’t sustainable at all. 

“Similarly, Arla is diligently using images of cows on green pastures in their marketing, yet they haven’t officially taken sides in the debate of protecting the unique, Swedish grazing law which is threatened of being scrapped by our government.”  

She added: “The overall conclusion from the report is that Arla cares more about looking good than actually doing good for the climate. If Arla had put as much resources into the actual climate work as it does into PR and lobbying, it would probably have had a good chance of achieving its own climate goals, but sadly they are not.”