As the world’s population grows, so too will the demand for animal-based food – in fact, it is projected to grow by as much as 70% by 2050. This need for ever-increasing quantities of animal protein is already placing tremendous pressure on our planet’s finite natural resources.
To make significant improvements, detailed measurement is essential at the levels of specific animal feeds and individual farms. Independent, science-based, data-driven guidance is necessary to achieve this step-change in environmental performance.
Animal protein companies, value chains, and financial institutions are increasingly asking themselves how to reduce their environmental impact. They seek credible, scalable measurement of their environmental footprint combined with expert, independent advice to answer their questions related to the environmental impact of their business operations.
Greater precision in animal farming is key to a more sustainable and profitable future. Our digital Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) platform, Sustell™, enables the scalable measurement and improvement of the full environmental footprint of animal protein production, backed by sustainability advice to customers through the Sustell™ Expert Center.
Moving to the next level of sustainability
Wanting to formalize its sustainability journey, Grupo Almar chose dsm-firmenich and Sustell™ to measure and validate its environmental footprint as part of a full, ISO 14040/44-compliant, LCA.
The Ecuadorian company explored multiple options and drew inspiration from the salmon industry, which has made significant progress in measuring and improving its environmental footprint thanks to LCA platforms such as Sustell™.
Through our partnership with dsm-firmenich, we have set our sights on improving the sustainability of our industry. We chose Sustell™ to go beyond mere measurement by taking ownership of our full environmental footprint, managing it 24/7 within our own teams and organization.
Making the invisible visible
Several years in development, Sustell™ was created in collaboration with key partners and recognized third-party experts in the field of agri-food lifecycle analysis. Its genesis also drew on the input of customers and users worldwide, to reflect the real-world requirements of sustainable animal protein production.
Sustell™ is the leading solution in the animal protein value chain for helping customers understand and improve their environmental footprint and unlock the value of sustainability. Working together with our customers, we have developed dedicated LCA models for dairy, swine, poultry, beef and aquaculture.
Sustell™ utilizes primary feed and farm-level data. Through its industry-leading, user-friendly digital platform, it manages the complexity of measuring, validating and improving the environmental sustainability of animal protein – transparently and scientifically, farm by farm, and system by system. It is the most comprehensive sustainability intelligence platform of its type and measures all the 19 different environmental footprint LCA categories to analyze total environmental impact.
Measurement: the first step to improvement
On 6 September 2023, Grupo Almar and dsm-firmenich announced a joint multi-year commitment to measure and improve Grupo Almar’s environmental footprint using Sustell™.
Full environmental footprinting of Grupo Almar’s shrimp production commenced in January 2024 and will provide internationally validated footprint results for the full year 2024 onwards. This collaboration will play a critical role in enabling Grupo Almar to identify the optimal interventions for achieving its objective of becoming the sustainability leader in aquaculture. Sustell™ is built on two pillars: the Intelligence Platform and the Expert Center.
The Sustell™ Intelligence Platform is continually updated and improved. This ensures that it always reflects evolving science, new methodologies, and the changing regulatory landscape and that it reliably meets the changing needs of individual animal protein producers, the animal protein industry as whole, and wider stakeholders too.
The Sustell™ Expert Center partners with customers to further unlock the value of sustainability, through modelling and providing advice on different interventions and quantifying their impact, thereby enabling customers to make well-informed decisions. This helps reduce the environmental footprint at farm level – right down to the level of the individual pond. The Sustell™ Expert Center offers precise, straightforward, and actionable analyses in terms of both feed and farm. It also provides recommendations, training, audits, and certification, as well as supporting business development projects.
Unlocking the value of sustainability
Sustell™ enables customers to accurately measure and improve the environmental footprint of animal protein production and unlock the value of sustainability.
Sustell™ provides customers with an immediate understanding of their environmental impact. It is easy to use, accurate and interoperable, to enable value chain actors to work together to improve sustainability. Crucially, it uses feed- and farm-level data and calculates the impact of specific interventions. This is essential for making targeted, measurable improvements. Sustell™ is ISO-assured, providing ISO-compliant, LCA-based environmental footprint metrics, combined with the unique sustainability expertise of dsm-firmenich.
Sustell™ takes sustainability to the next level. It opens the door to greater production efficiency and farm profitability by identifying best practices while unlocking new value opportunities, such as product eco-labelling, carbon credits and access to sustainable finance.
