Over the past 12 months, considerable progress has been made in our Living Proof strategy

‘Living Proof’, Tirlán’s sustainability strategy, was launched just over a year ago. Much has happened since we stated our company’s commitment to farming, food and the future, with lots of work underway throughout our Co-operative, on the family farm and in our communities, as we live up to the promises made and targets set this time last year.

Our Living Proof pledges include a 30% absolute reduction in carbon emissions from our processing sites by 2030. We also vowed to work with our dairy farmers towards a similar cut in carbon intensity from milk production.

We promised to prioritise our actions in energy efficiency, packaging and plastic reductions, halving food waste, animal health and welfare, biodiversity and other areas.

We also signed up to the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to show our clear and unambiguous commitment to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by implementing the best science and technology.

Our overall ambition is to reach Net Zero Carbon by no later than 2050.

• We reached our Operation Biodiversity target of 100,000 native Irish trees and hedgerows in half the original timeframe
• We have championed education. In conjunction with our customer Diageo and Baileys Irish Cream Liqueur, we launched Ireland’s first ever Sustainable Farming Academy
• A dedicated annual fund of €18 million underpins the Sustainable Action Payment programme and is tailored to assist our 5,000 milk suppliers as they continue to enhance the environmental and economic sustainability of their family farms
• We worked with our suppliers to reduce carbon from milk production by 7% between 2018 and 2021.

• We are focusing strongly on energy efficiency, with all of our Ingredients and Agri production sites now certified to the energy management system ISO50001
• The Board has signed off on a dedicated sustainability action fund to support investment in renewable energies for our sites
• Our Ballyragget Combined Heat and Power Plant upgrade delivered efficiencies enough to reduce output by 1000 tonnes of carbon a year
• Our new Abbey Quarter collaboration hub is the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) accredited neighbourhood development in Ireland
• Our teams are working hard to ensure our new joint venture Kilkenny Cheese Ltd plant under construction in Belview, County Kilkenny will be one of the most efficient and sustainable continental cheese production facilities in Europe.

• We moved to Tetra Top® packaging on our Avonmore Fresh Cream, Double Cream and Light Cream ranges which contains 62% less plastic than the previous bottles, without compromising on taste or quality
• We actioned the removal of plastic straws from the EU School Milk Programme
• An average of 1.5g has already been removed from each 2L standard HDPE milk jug with investigation underway on reducing the weight of our iconic Avonmore milk jug for significant plastic savings, without compromising on taste or quality
• For our cheese we have successfully reduced the thickness of the existing plastic film in our slice and block formats, with validation underway for our grated cheese formats, again without impacting on the taste or quality
• We significantly reduced food waste and through our partnership with FoodCloud, we provided 229,990 meals to families who needed them over the past year.

• 100% of GI milk is now Bord Bia certified under the Sustainable Dairy Assurance Scheme
• We also achieved the Bord Bia Grass Fed standard
• 97% of our grain is certified sustainable by IGAS
• Through our strong partnerships, we are building scientific evidence to demonstrate the health benefits of our dairy and plant-based products
• We co-funded the research by the Mercer’s Institute for Successful Ageing (MISA) and Trinity College Dublin, which highlighted the requirement for Vitamin D supplementation in the Irish population, strengthening the positioning of Avonmore Super Milk.

Some of these accomplishments are brough to life in the video below.

Living Proof as a strategy demonstrates how we work every day, but also sets out our pathway to 2030 and beyond.

Our efforts have been rewarded with several top awards over the past year.

We’ve won Bord Bia Origin Green Gold status for two years in a row; we’ve been awarded a coveted Health & Safety Award; a Silver medal for Ecovadis and a Cogeca Award for our Twenty20 Beef Club.

Every one of us has a role to play in making us one of the world’s most sustainably focused cooperatives. Thanks to everyone in our organisation for your individual contribution to our success in the last year and we very much look forward to the next chapter.