After a large increase in membership in the first months of this year which brought our membership to over 100 organisations (read our article on celebrating our 100th member), we welcome the diverse range of organisations that joined our community in April and May 2021. Read in the following post about their plans within the Cool Farm Alliance.
Bairds Malt procures malting barley from farmers and produces malt for the distilling and brewing industries. The company is developing a sustainability strategy to meet industry and government targets and to support customers in their sustainability goals. “We want to measure and improve the carbon footprint of our supply chain and use the Cool Farm Tool as medium to further develop sustainability practices and support our farmers” says Alan Williamson, Commercial Director of Bairds Malt.
Benson Hill empowers innovators to unlock nature’s genetic diversity from plant to plate, 
with the purpose of creating healthier, great-tasting food and ingredient options that are both widely accessible and sustainable. Benson Hill moves food forward with the CropOS® platform, a cutting-edge food innovation engine that combines data science and machine learning with biology and genetics. Anthony Kinsley, Director, Impact & ESG, on joining the Alliance: “The Cool Farm Tool will provide us with an agricultural lens and analysis of how to incorporate conservation, soil health and GHG emission reduction into our farming practices. Our sustainability strategy is focused on sustainable food and ingredient options that support the needs of our farmers, customers and investors. The Cool Farm Alliance will provide key insights and conversations of how to align our key metrics to the industry, and provide an opportunity to become part of the sustainable agriculture conversation”.
Bodengesundheitsdienst (BGD) is a service provider specialised in analyses and services in agri-food sector as well as viticulture, special crops, horticulture and private gardens. BGD is well established since 1986 and linked to Justus-Liebig-Laboratory, Rain. Research and participation on European research projects are done via the scientific working group EUF ARGE. Customers are mainly located in Germany, Austria, Poland and large-scale farms in Europe and overseas. BGD’s main business is the analysis of soil nutrients based on the modern and officially approved EUF method (Electro Ultrafiltration) as well as the support with fertiliser recommendations fulfilling more than the requirements of the fertilisation regime. Out of a single soil sample EUF is providing the customer with all relevant soil information. Further analysis services of BGD are humus content, organic fertilisers, nematodes, forage, disease detection.
For over 150 years, Dole has delivered nutritious, high quality produce around the world while preserving the land from which it is grown, as well as supporting and enhancing global communities. Dole’s new sustainability framework paves the way for further improvements in areas where we believe we can make the biggest positive impacts. To complement our new framework, we’ve introduced a new set of sustainability goals designed to translate “The Dole Way” focus areas into tangible action. This is the first time Dole has set enterprise-wide sustainability goals – an important milestone on our sustainability journey as a company. To measure progress against our goals, we’re utilising the Cool Farm Tool to enable us to capture accurate and consistent data across all farms and compile for broader reporting.
SQM is a global company that develops and produces diverse products for several industries essential for human progress, such as health, nutrition, renewable energy and technology through innovation and technological development. Holding leading world position in the lithium, potassium nitrate, iodine and thermo-solar salts markets, SQM produces high-quality products to meet the dynamic and changing requirements of our customers.
“We are global, we care about local markets and we are committed to contribute to a sustainable agriculture, based on our natural resources, caliche and salar brines. With our expertise we deliver a complete portfolio of high efficiency products for a balanced plant nutrition. We are proud to join the Cool Fam Alliance as we are sure this will be the first step in a long standing relationship. We look forward contributing with our know-how to increase awareness for a sustainable agriculture e.g. by using different sources of fertilisers” explains Diego San Martin B., Marketing Director at SQM.
VESTA Consulting is a company of forward-thinking professionals helping business to discover, understand and implement sustainability principles and contribute to their long-term success. Our experience and leadership in the Baltics makes VESTA a credible company that delivers best results for clients. We focus on client’s needs and expectations by performing transparent procedures and open communication during all processes. VESTA is working on building corporate sustainability and — as new area — agricultural sustainability. We aim at communicating and promoting sustainability for farmers and food producers along the whole supply chain. The Cool Farm Tool will help us calculate GHG emissions on-farm and identify hotspot areas where improvements are needed.
Viking Malt is a worldwide acknowledged malting company. We provide value adding malted products to our customers for their success. We have our malting plants in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania and Poland. The company is family-owned since 1883. As part of our CSR strategy, we aim to protect the environment and its biodiversity, and to have lowest possible emissions from our sourcing process. Barley cultivation forms a significant part of the greenhouse gas emissions of our value chain, so we need tools to better understand how we can tackle those emissions. We have chosen the Cool Farm Tool as our GHG calculator because it is widely supported by the food & beverage industries through the Cool Farm Alliance, enabling also the active participation in the development of the tool.