This story was also published in the CSR 2023-2024 report, released Nov. 5, 2024.
"That monopoly is coming."
Together with partners
Sustainable business is impossible without involving suppliers and buyers. CONO wants to have reduced the footprint of cheese by 30 percent by 2030, and then you have to know where in the chain greenhouse gases are emitted. And then determine whether those emissions are 'material'. In other words, whether they are large enough to discuss with the 'chain partner'. Astrid Konijn is external business office coordinator at CONO and regularly speaks with the companies where the cheese ripens and with the companies that package the cheese. It is then also about their sustainability. What are the partners working on and what are their plans? "We are very like-minded in terms of sustainability. So we really intend to meet the Paris goals."
Achieving climate objectives
By making the packaging of Beemster cheese more sustainable, CONO has already gone a long way towards achieving its climate goals. The sheets between the slices of cheese are no longer made of plastic, but of paper, and the step on which the cheese is placed is made entirely of paper instead of paper with a thin layer of plastic on top. It took a lot of experimentation to find a material that does not absorb fat, but does not contain plastic either.
Monofoil as a suitable material
The next step is the packaging of the cheese. The search is for suitable material in a so-called monofoil. That is almost entirely reusable. "That monofoil will come, I expect. But right now we are still testing. The most important thing is, to meet the tht date, that the product doesn't go moldy."
Making cheese transport more sustainable
Even in the transport of cheese - from CONO to the ripening locations, from there to the packaging company and then to the supermarkets - everyone is working on sustainability, Astrid says. "We exchanged a storage location in Gemert for one in Almere. That's more central and that saves a lot of transport kilometers."
Electric miles
"The hauler who picks up the cheese from our place experimented with a hybrid truck, but it still didn't work. Because he makes long trips, he brakes little and missed the power that braking generates. As a result, he used as much diesel as before, but with a much more expensive truck. So together we are constantly exploring ways to do things more sustainably. We had also put him in touch with our milk transporter Danmel Transport, who has been driving an electric RMO (Rijdende Melk Ontvangst, ed.) since 2023. So we are working together towards ever more sustainable transport. And also those electric trucks, they will eventually come."
Climate ambition CONO
CONO Cheese Makers has the ambition to work together to be positive for future generations. This requires cooperation in the chain. In the process of making cheese, CONO and its partners want to reduce 75% CO₂-eq. in order to reduce the footprint of cheese.