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Cooperl, France’s leading pork producer, is pushing the boundaries with ambitious targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions, aiming for a 46% reduction in agriculture and a complete decarbonisation of transport by 2040. With innovations in biogas, energy efficiency, and biofuel production, Cooperl is aligning its efforts with France’s National Low-Carbon Strategy and the 1.5°C Paris Agreement trajectory. Learn how they are reshaping the future of sustainable pork production.
As a leader in France’s pork production, the cooperative Cooperl represents 25% of national production. Cooperl has long been committed to environmental responsibility across all its operations, from breeding to retail, including the meat and charcuterie sectors. In 2019, the cooperative prioritised assessing its direct and indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in order to better understand their impact, with a view of implementing a reduction strategy integrated into the group’s CSR approach. This report, updated in 2022, demonstrated that thanks to an innovation strategy, between 2019 and 2022, emissions decreased globally by 391,655 teqCO2 (Scope 1, 2 and 3) or 11%. By 2040, Cooperl aims to meet France’s National Low-Carbon Strategy goals, ten years ahead of schedule, through sectoral roadmaps for agriculture, industry and transport:
For the agriculture sector, the objective is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 46% compared to 2019. This target is feasible through the large-scale deployment of already developed and proven technologies, which include:
- improvement of the feeding performance of animals (stopping castration, individualised precision feeding, etc.);
- improvement of the environmental impact of food (choice of more efficient raw materials, particularly without deforestation);
- use of technologies to manage livestock effluent (frequent evacuation of slurry, valorisation of biogas by methanisation).
For the industry sector, the objective is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 81% compared to 2019. This will be achieved through several key strategies, including:
- energy efficiency (deployment of ISO 50001, process optimisation, waste heat recovery, etc.);
- consumption of renewable or low-carbon energy (electrification of processes, methanisation, biomass, etc.);
- reduction of leaks and use of less impactful refrigerating fluids;
- use of their own bioCO2, resulting from the methanisation plants in Lamballe, supplied by the slurry of Cooperl’s members, replacing fossil CO2.
For the transport sector, the objective is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 100% compared to 2019 through:
- production and use of biofuel (transport of goods, agricultural machinery of members). The cooperative’s plan is to build a 20 million litre biofuel plant. Based on an innovation patented by Cooperl, it will be powered, in particular, by flotation fat from the water purification stations of their industries;
- modal shift, particularly from truck to train (this shift is already being implemented for animal feed plants and they are conducting trials on meat);
- encouraging transport providers to decarbonise their fleet.
Thanks to this global strategy, Cooperl is aligning with the 1.5°C Paris Agreement trajectory, enabling them to offer consumers pork and charcuterie products with a reduced environmental footprint.
