Lely strives towards circular dairy farming. The same ambition is in place for our own products and services. To set a good example we are raising the bar in sustainability: a program has been started in which Lely commits to be carbon neutral in its own operations by 2030. We bundled initiatives from different departments and expertise to create a series called Sustainability Stories. With these stories we showcase our sustainable and circular projects.
One way to work towards CO₂ neutrality in 2030 is to reduce gas consumption in both our own operations and our Lely Owned Lely Centers. That is why Lely Center Zevenbergen rents a building with 60 solar panels since 2021. We spoke to Tabe Vrieswijk, center manager at Lely Center Zevenbergen.
In 2023, we started a pilot with an electric service van (EV) at Lely Center Armor in France. We spoke to Guillaume Chabra, center manager at Lely Center Armor: ‘Our service technicians do a lot of mileage when they visit customers, so driving an electric service van could be a good solution for lowering CO₂ emissions’.
A concrete way to enhance the sustainability of our procurement activities is to look for value sourcing opportunities to meet common procurement needs. We highlight two examples of the triple win that can be realised through value sourcing. We spoke to Eva Leeuwenkamp, Continuous Improvement Procurement & Supply manager.
Thirteen years ago, Lely started its own refurbishment quality label: Lely Taurus. An underexposed innovation! These days we cleaned, refurbished and upgraded pre-owned Lely equipment in our Maassluis factory to almost as good as new and run them through our own performance tests.
An important way to enhance the sustainability of our operational activities is to reduce the amount of non-reusable packaging. We are constantly looking for ways to achieve this for incoming materials. In this story we highlight the packaging process and waste streams of our production facility at the Lely Campus.
This Christmas break, we decided to change the settings of the system to our weekend standards. By doing so, the temperature in the building lowers. The results are significant: compared to the same period the year before we saved 24.000 kWh of electricity, 6.698 m3 of natural gas and 12 tons of CO2.
Develop a new, wearable, safe, and sustainable clothing line. That was the assignment we gave to the supplier of our company clothing. From coveralls, fleece jackets and working trousers to polo shirts, softshell jackets, winter jackets and hats. Everything is now made from sustainable materials – organic cotton and recycled polyester.
HVO stands for “Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil” and is the most sustainable diesel fuel at the moment. We started driving on HVO in May 2022. The transition HVO to underlines the Supply Chain Design principles about our carbon footprint and sustainability, but also improving the entire chain.
At Lely we started a trial period of refurbishing E-links of the Astronaut milking robot. The high-performance touch screen monitor is designed to maximize productivity and consists of hardware and software. Monitors that are returned due to a variety of reasons, are now being refurbished into high-quality Lely equipment at a great value.
To us, our buildings are more than just a construction; they reflect our DNA and showcase our outlook on innovation, sustainability and thus place in the world. The renewed Lely Campus is BREEAM certified, an achievement which shows the sustainability performance of our project.
Farmers all over the world make choices about how they set up and run their farms. Every day, we help them make the best choices for themselves and their farms. We do this by providing advice and innovative solutions that contribute to efficient farm management. For sustainable milk and meat production. Present and future.
