What is climate value?

Climate value is calculated using life cycle assessment (LCA) and describes the total environmental impact of a product in the form of greenhouse gases converted to carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2-eq). In other words, the concept tells you how much greenhouse gases our feeds cause over their lifetime.

How does it work?

The basis for the climate values has previously been obtained from several sources, but from this year the data used will come from the new European database created by GFLI (Global Feed LCA Institute). GFLI has collected, harmonized and generalized existing LCA* data to be able to offer a common data bank with climate data for a large amount of feed raw materials.

In 2021, Lantmännen, as a member of the Feed and Grain Association,  was involved in developing an industry agreement on how climate values for Swedish concentrates should be calculated and reported. The common rules can be read here.

"The big difference from before is that we have a completely new starting point. The GFLI database contains standardized values based on a large amount of data. We can also easily choose the climate values of the raw materials depending on the geographical area in which they are produced. Since the GFLI database still does not cover all locally produced raw materials, we have jointly created a list for these that complements the GFLI database," says Cecilia Lindahl, developer at the feed unit.

She explains that climate data can be used in different ways, for example, you can choose whether or not to count on land use change (LUC)* data  . In the industry agreement, we have chosen to report climate values for concentrates both with and without LUC. This means, for example, that feed containing soy has a poorer  climate value when LUC is included. Our concentrated feed's calculated climate values are reported on each feed's product sheet.

Why do we use climate value?

Lantmännen's goal of reducing emissions by 40 percent between 2009 and 2020 for own production was already achieved in 2015. A new target was set for a further 40 per cent reduction by 2020, which was also achieved in 2020. A new long-term target for the climate impact of energy use will be developed in 2021, which you can read more about here. One part of achieving these goals is to reduce the climate impact of Lantmännen's feed.

The work with climate-calculated feeds opens up the opportunity to reduce our climate impact, both by making demands on our suppliers and in dialogue with authorities. The calculation of the climate impact of our feeds is primarily a tool to increase awareness of the climate footprint of our feeds. However, we must never forget that feed efficiency, feed per unit produced, is always a basic prerequisite for climate-smart animal production.

It will always be difficult to compare calculated climate values between different companies and actors. Transparency and clarity are therefore incredibly important when calculating the climate values of our feeds in order to maintain high credibility.

"We are very positive that we have been able to reach an industry agreement on this issue. Climate values in themselves should never become a means of competition. To achieve success, we in the industry must work together and use similar methods and comparable values," says Cecilia Lindahl.

Impact of production

We strive to constantly improve the efficiency of our transports and to reduce energy consumption in our factories. Over the past ten years, we have reduced carbon dioxide emissions from our own factories by about 90 percent.

The result so far

Lantmännen's investment in developing the climate data of feed raw materials and taking these into account in feed optimisation has yielded results. In calculations in 2019, Lantmännen's feed range for cattle showed a reduced climate impact of up to 30 percent compared to the previous range, with the same price picture and feed efficiency. On the pig feed side, the decrease was up to ten percent.