As one of Europe’s largest potato starch producers, the KMC Group has a vision and a responsibility to create a more sustainable future.
Therefore, we have set ambitious targets for our carbon footprint this year and initiated additional measures to monitor it. Like the EU and Denmark, our overarching goal is clear: we aim to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
We also intend to reduce the climate impact per ton of native starch by 55 percent by 2030 in scopes 1 and 2 and reduce the climate impact per ton of flakes/ granules by 30 percent by 2030 in scopes 1 and 2.
As a new initiative, we have prepared climate reports that calculate our carbon footprint across scopes 1, 2, and 3. We have also developed a baseline report to monitor progress since the reference year 2015/16.
Last but not least, we are compiling all our initiatives in a Decarbonisation Roadmap report that charts the way forward.
This allows us to continuously monitor how far we are from our goals and how we can achieve them. We strive to reduce energy consumption per produced unit as much as possible, considering environmental and climate perspectives.
However, it remains important that we comply with authorities’ and customers’ quality requirements while considering the company’s ongoing competitiveness.
Positive trends
We are already well on our way towards our goals and feel positive support from growers, customers, and consumers who increasingly want to make climate-conscious choices.
The largest emissions in the KMC Group occur at the grower level, but starch production itself is also very energy-intensive, requiring significant efforts to reduce our emissions.
Over the years, we have actively worked on energy and resource optimization to make our ingredients as sustainable as possible, and this work continues. The latest calculations from 2021/22 show significant progress.
Since the reference year 2015/16, the carbon footprint has been reduced by 27.3 percent per ton of native starch and 19.6 percent per ton of flakes/granules in scopes 1 and 2. Calculations for 22/23 are not yet available.
Despite increased volumes since 2009 and thus increased emissions, our work significantly contributes to the decarbonization of the starch sector’s various customers. In the future, KMC will explore different technological options and practices to help us with our reductions and achieve our goals.
Roadmap Report showing the way
Alongside the completion of this sustainability report, we have finished the KMC Group’s Decarbonisation Roadmap.
The roadmap outlines various measures we have implemented to reach our 2030 reduction goals. It will be updated every few years as we develop new projects, measures, and goals, and we will continuously report on our progress.
All reports and calculations are developed in collaboration with the consultancy Better Green to ensure compliance with all international requirements for measurement and documentation.
With these initiatives and measures, we aim to move ourselves and the rest of the industry towards a greener future.
Climate footprint: Potato starch (2015-2022)
Climate footprint: Powder and flakes (2015-2022)
Source: KMC’s baseline report – scopes 1 and 2. (Figures for 22/23 are not yet available).