Our vision on sustainability
At Vandersterre, we believe that a clear vision and well-founded perspective on sustainable development is essential for a future-proof family business. As integral part of our strategy, we have formulated such a vision on a sustainability vision, guiding our investments and setting priorities for years to come.
Our vision of sustainability is based on our responsibility as a company and partner in the dairy chain. Our goals are in line with the route set by the national Climate Agreement, the international Paris Agreement and the Science Based Targets for the agribusiness sector. We have divided these targets into two categories:
1 Our responsibility as a company: Emission reduction targets based on SBTi & social sustainability
– We have set short- and long-term emission reduction targets for our scope 1, 2 and scope 3 non-FLAG* emissions in line with the SBTi
– We measure the development of our social sustainability with the Dutch CSR label (MVO-keurmerk) and have set a goal of achieving level Gold by 2025
*non-FLAG emissions are the scope 3 emissions, which are not related to agriculture, e.g. purchased transport services, water, waste and commuting of personnel
2 Our responsibility as a (supply chain) partner: The widest range of more environmentally friendly products & reduced impact of the average product
– We invest in more environmentally friendly product categories, which support biodiversity and animal welfare and/or have a smaller (>10%) CO2-footprint compared to conventional products (see table below)
– We have set a short- and long-term emission reduction target for our scope 3 FLAG emissions**
**FLAG emissions are the scope 3 emissions from agricultural activities and thus in our case from purchased dairy products
More environmentally friendly product categories of Vandersterre:
Four priorities for sustainable development
To achieve our goals, we have formulated four focal points that we are working on in our organization, with our products and with our partners to accelerate sustainable development. These four priorities are as follows:
We want to help our customers and consumers on the route to more sustainable products. Therefore, we are expanding our selection of more environmentally friendly products and working with our suppliers and partners to make existing products more sustainable where possible.
We also pay attention to improving the recyclability of our packaging so that the outside of the product reflects the values on the inside.
We take good care of our people by providing them with a sustainable, motivating, challenging and appropriate work environment. In this, we also promote a healthy lifestyle and provide tools for our employees to make more sustainable choices in their work and private lives.
We want to continuously improve ourselves in the area of social sustainability, which is why we are committed to making it measurable with the Dutch CSR label (MVO-keurmerk).
We want to implement sustainable development in our processes faster than the national climate policy requires of us. This calls for investments in optimizing and improving our processes.
We are also doing our part in the transition to less polluting energy sources, including operating without the use of natural gas. Energy transition is also applied to our transport methods, where technological advances give us the opportunity to become more sustainable.
We want to support sustainable development where it can have the greatest positive impact. That’s why we work together with our key suppliers and partners to achieve a more sustainable value chain – from farm to fork.
Applying nature-inclusive and sustainable farming practices is part of the approach to reduce emissions within the value chain.
A CSR quality mark certified company
In August 2023, Vandersterre received its ISO 26000-compliant CSR quality mark from MVO Nederland. The audit for this was successfully completed by the sustainability advisor, corporate development director and HR.
Over the past two years, Vandersterre has taken action to improve the social sustainability within the company and to reduce its impact on the environment through, energy-saving measures, co-operation with responsible partners and more efficient use of resources, a.o. These efforts were verified by the auditor who also conducted interviews to see if the sustainability policy was also well-known among the staff. In the end, Vandersterre was awarded the bronze seal of approval, one step above the basic level. Our ambition is to continue to measure our sustainable development in the coming years and to work on improving the quality mark level to silver and eventually gold.
If you are curious about what we do as a socially responsible company, read our new CSR annual report here
Take a look at our report of 2020-2022 here
We would welcome further discussion about how we can work together towards a more sustainable world.
