Reuse of energy
A lot of water and energy is needed to make cheese. Through smart innovation, CONO Kaasmakers has made great strides in this area over the past ten years. An example: heat is needed to process the cold milk. The whey from the process is warm and must be cooled again. We now allow these two products to flow past each other in tubes via a plate exchanger. This way, the milk heats up and the whey cools down. The residual water that remains after the cow's milk has been processed is largely used for cleaning the cheese factory.
In the cheese factory, we aim for operational excellence. Apart from energy-efficient machines, that is mainly a question of behaviour and choices. For example, preventing or quickly resolving faults saves energy. No wasting of milk and raw materials is also energy saving: making the best cheese in one go with as few resources as possible. This tight combination of techniques and measures yields great gains in sustainability.
Green energy
The CONO cheese factory runs entirely on green electricity. We purchase 50% of that through our own member dairy farmers who generate their own solar and wind energy. In this way we stimulate the energy transition within our own sector, with the objective that our dairy farmers eventually generate enough green electricity for the entire cheese chain. Currently, 34% of our dairy farmers generate their own green electricity.
CO2 offsetting
To neutralize the last now unavoidable CO2 emissions, CONO deploys CO2 offsetting. This is done through sustainable climate projects elsewhere in the world. For this we work together with Groenbalans. We are now doing that with a small-scale hydropower project in India according to the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS).