The challenge of the frozen and refrigerated industry.
The frozen foods and refrigeration state for a number large challenges. As part of the value chain for the food and pharmaceutical industries, all companies will soon be required to report more and more on their CO2 emissions and what positive and negative impact they have on European climate goals. Customers and consumers expect transparency.
At the same time, there is an inherent ambition of the companies themselves to become more sustainable and reduce CO2 emissions wherever possible.
"As a coldstore operator, I am excited about this initiative by our federation. ESG is not just a report, it is also a choice for good governance, environmental awareness and social responsibility. At Jodifrost, we don't just store food products, we are committed every day with our employees, customers and suppliers to a future where corporate responsibility is the norm, not the exception." says Joris Olbrechts from Jodifrost.
From "no view of sustainability" to a sectoral approach.
Refrigerated storage plants use an enormous amount of electrical energy for cooling and freezing. So one of the central questions is: how can we make our energy consumption as small and as renewable as possible?
In addition, consumer demand for frozen foods is skyrocketing. The global frozen food market is expected to be worth USD 363.7 billion by 2028, with an annual compound growth rate of 5.1% during the forecast period.
But under the influence of CSRD and CSDDD, we are seeing an increase in the number of questions about "carbon emissions," "renewable energy," "diversity," "inclusion," "pollution," "reporting.
So our sector federation BE-Cold asked itself the question: are we all going to try to answer each question separately, each company for itself, in a different way?
That didn't seem like a logical choice to us. After all, in this way we ensure that 1) different ways of thinking arise 2) there is no uniformity in the market 3) the cost price is very high 4) quality cannot be guaranteed 5) the goal of effective sustainability is not achieved at all.
A sectoral approach
To answer all these questions together, BE-Cold partnered with The Ecological Entrepreneur. Ten members, representative of the industry's core business, will study the following questions during 2023-2024:
- How can we develop a standard that all frozen and refrigerated food companies can rely on for sustainability reporting?
- How do we develop a tangible, hands-on, science-based approach to making businesses more sustainable and reducing carbon emissions?
How do we ensure that for companies the reporting cost remains as low as possible, while they can get to work on the concrete actions to become more sustainable?
Sustainability: complex, or not?
'Sustainability is complex and not'. Sustainability is always presented as an impossible task, which is not at all easy to solve. Making our economy sustainable is indeed a huge challenge. On the other hand, many of the solutions are well known.
"To a 'layman,' sustainability is a black box. You do know that we have CO2 need to reduce, but what the net is, and how? No idea. That's why it's important to work with experts, but who also understand the day-to-day reality of our sector. The question is always: how can we make change both portable and tangible?" says Joris Olbrechts, of Jodifrost.
First professional federation in Europe to develop a sustainability standard.
Koen Vangoidsenhoven, general secretary of BE-Cold: "We are proud to announce that we are the only professional federation (even at the European level!) that has succeeded - within a time span of only six months - in developing a sectoral sustainability reporting template, which our members can easily work with."
"Through our standardized approaches to sustainability reporting, science-based strategies for carbon reduction and offsetting, and focus on minimizing reporting costs, our industry can excel with tangible results at all ESG levels.", said Joris Olbrechts, CEO Jodifrost and President of BE-Cold.
The sectoral approach focuses not only on compliance with legal obligations, but also on creating a culture of sustainability and social responsibility throughout the value chain.
CO² emissions comparison.
One of the key questions facing the refrigeration industry is: "How can we help our members pragmatically, effectively and efficiently report on sustainability and develop a sustainability strategy?"
By conducting a dual materiality analysis at both company and sector levels, we have made it possible to define material themes, reduce the cost of analysis and increase investment capacity for reduction measures.
By analyzing the CO₂ emissions in Scope 1 and 2 by company, a comparative study of the carbon intensity by company (CO₂ compared to sales, profit, number of pallets, etc.) could be performed.
The strength of this approach lies in comparing company results with sector data, stimulating sector-wide discussions and developing effective carbon reduction and compensation strategies.
By focusing on key sustainability issues, we were able to develop a sustainability reporting standard for the Belgian refrigeration and freezing industry that provides consistency and uniformity to BE-Cold members' customers and, indeed, all other stakeholders.
Joris Olbrechts : "As members, we participated in the process, with a welcome end result. Members know where to start, our customers are satisfied with our sustainability report, and we know how to implement our annual update."
The standard allows BE-Cold members to further collaborate on sustainability in the future and provide a coordinated response to their customers and other stakeholders.
The sector report can be downloaded from the following link: BECOLD_VSRS_STANDARD FOR REFRIGERATION & FREEZING INDUSTRY
