CHINA – Dutch multinational dairy cooperative, FrieslandCampina has opened a new Innovation Experience Centre (IEC), in Xintiandi, China to bolster Chinese-focused dairy innovations.   

FrieslandCampina said the new facility will provide its consumers, customers, and stakeholders with a platform to learn about its 150 years of heritage and innovation.  

At the IEC, visitors and clients will have a chance to see exhibits from the company’s portfolio, corporate values and heritage alongside next-gen features through AI, test and trial, live streaming, and more.  

“The IEC will showcase the best innovations and consumer-focused experiences, providing an immersive and digitally powered consumer-client journey,” said Grace Chen, managing director, FrieslandCampina China.  

Earlier, FrieslandCampina teamed up with global soil scientists and life-cycle assessment (LCA) specialists to build the world’s first LCA-based methodology for calculating carbon sequestration in cattle production systems: C-Sequ.  

The tool which is now available for pilot testing is designed to encourage the implementation of positive farm management practices that both promote and retain carbon in the soil and vegetation in a quantified way. 

“Our farmers take all kinds of actions to reduce their climate impact, that’s part of our ambition for a carbon neutral future,” said Margrethe Jonkman, global director research & development at FrieslandCampina. 

“Carbon sequestration is a crucial solution for that. The C-Sequ guidelines are a key tool to help measure the farmer’s efforts effectively and scientifically. It helps them to know how well they do or if there is room for improvement. Next to that, it can be a base to reward those efforts.’’ 

In keeping up with its sustainability agenda, FrieslandCampina also recently upgraded its packaging, incorporating new labels to make its yogurt and soft curd cups recyclable. 

Previously, the cups could not be recycled as a whole, because during the waste sorting process the machines did not recognize the label around the cups as recyclable. 

FrieslandCampina now says the solution developed by its R&D department would result in more than 400,000 kilograms of cups becoming recyclable. 

“With the new labels around our yogurt and soft curd cups we make sure that these packages are correctly recognized and sorted for recycling in the existing recycling processes and do not end up in the residual waste flow for energy recovery,” said Patrick van Baal, global director packaging development at FrieslandCampina. 

FrieslandCampina’s strides on sustainability come as its CEO Hein Schumacher assumes additional responsibilities as chair of Global Dairy Platform’s board of directors.  

Schumacher succeeds Rick Smith, president and CEO of Dairy Farmers of America, who completed a four-year term as GDP chair. 

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