Preserving Aotearoa’s natural environment: The importance of providing our farmers with the right tools.
by Simon Limmer – Chief Executive, Silver Fern Farms
What is your personal WHY in relation to combating climate change and environmental challenges, and preserving Aotearoa’s natural capital?
As New Zealanders we have an inherent relationship and appreciation for Aotearoa’s natural environment, given that for many of us, it is fundamental to how we live, work and play. As a parent, executive, and proud Kiwi I feel the responsibility to show leadership today. Primarily because I feel that action is required now, to ensure the burden of the past does not weigh on future generations. Secondly, we have an exceptional opportunity to reset and rebuild, to position Aotearoa globally, unlock a substantial economic return on natural capital, and allow our communities to thrive.
What work is in progress by SFF to help preserve Aotearoa’s natural capital and reduce emissions?
At Silver Fern Farms we have redesigned our business strategy to respond to a rapidly changing world. We’ve adopted a new purpose “Creating Goodness from the Farms the World Needs” and we’ve placed the creation of enduring value – Tāria te wā - front and centre of our market-led strategy. We are creating deeper connections with our markets and customers, and we are actively listening. We want to hear customer preferences, concerns, aspirations, and values so we can translate these market signals into new forms of value for our suppliers. Sustainability sits at the heart of this work and the trust customers have in the New Zealand farming system is fundamental to our success.
As a company we have committed to a Nature-Positive future and we are currently pursuing a range of initiatives to better connect consumers and producers, placing our products at a premium in global markets.
Our ability to deliver really does depend on our ability to front-up and make good on the targets we have set under our Sustainability Action Plan. It requires a cohesive effort, from the farms to our processing sites, to our people all around the world. Covering eight material issues it’s a holistic plan, embedded into the functions across the business and executed through cross functional collaboration.
We are working on ambitious science-based targets for emissions reductions across scope 1 & 2 and will have set a scope 3 target by the end of this year. We have annual energy, water and waste targets in place and are also working on a range of nature positive metrics so we can track our management of natural capital in our operations, and on-farm, with much more rigour.
2022 was the first year we have published a Sustainability Action Plan scorecard. While it shows the challenges we have ahead of us, it also shows the responsibility and opportunity we have to lead food systems change. We are committed to continue showing leadership in this space and being transparent about our progress.
What role can farmers have in protecting our natural capital in Aotearoa?
We are serious about supporting our hard-working farmers to lead the world in nature positive food production. As a company we are in a unique position to build closer partnerships between global consumers and our farming partners in a way that supports and drives positive change. For example, when consumers buy Net Carbon Zero products they are directly incentivising supplying farmers for their efforts to create farm environments that are better able to capture carbon and increase biodiversity. Our insights show that our pastoral farming system has many of the attributes consumers are looking for.
Putting tools into the hands of farmers to reduce and manage emissions is one part of this and that’s why we helped to establish, and have significantly invested in, the Government and industry joint venture – AgriZero - to accelerate R&D and new technologies to address on-farm emissions.
We are also rolling out our industry-leading Environmental Assurance scheme NZFAP+ and so far we have close to 400 farms onboard, which will double over the next two years. NZFAP+ will be an important platform in terms of being able to demonstrate with integrity the natural benefits and impacts of food production in New Zealand.
We think it’s important for New Zealand farmers to feel that their actions are meaningful and genuinely ‘creating goodness’. Most farmers are careful stewards of the land and are looking to achieve multi-generational improvements. They deserve to feel better empowered to run their businesses, and in a way that acknowledges them for generating positive economic, environmental and social impacts
What are your goals for the next year to keep progressing this mahi?
We are really focussed on hitting the environmental targets in our operations which we control directly (energy, emission, water, waste) as that’s how we can demonstrate authentic leadership. It’s easy to talk about sustainability targets and ambition – a lot harder to actually tick them off.
Looking wider we have some important milestones in the pipeline including:
Nature Positive delivery – currently trialing a holistic on-farm approach including measurement and monitoring acros biodiversity, climate, soil and water
Carbon-labelling – this month we will launch Net Carbon Zero beef and lamb into the New Zealand market, with full carbon footprint labelling and supply-chain transparency. A first for a New Zealand food producer, and another first in the global red meat industry
Climate risk mapping – we are piloting climate risk mapping, utilising satellite and big data technology to give farmers the tools and information they need to apply nature-based solutions and adapt to a changing climate
With The Aotearoa Circle’s support, we are also hoping to be one of the first New Zealand companies to complete a full Nature-based Financial Disclosure (under the TNFD framework) and we have our first materiality assessment underway at the moment.