Royal DSM, a global science-based company active in nutrition, health and sustainable living, has launched its sustainability platform, Reducing emissions from livestock, as part of its recent strategic initiative We Make It Possible.

The sustainability platform is a commitment from DSM to reducing emissions from livestock in direct support of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 13, Climate Action. To realize a reduction in carbon emissions, animal farming has to reduce the emissions it produces, cutting the levels of methane and nitrous oxide produced, both directly and indirectly, and reduce ammonia emissions, which lead to eutrophication on land and subsequent biodiversity loss. DSM has developed innovative solutions that make every stage in the value chain more emission friendly.

“For too long, sustainability has been someone else’s problem, a problem for tomorrow. Amidst global climate change, the need to reduce carbon emissions from animal livestock is increasingly important. It is not a question of whether we need to shift to a more sustainable business model, it is more a question of how fast and with what impact. We need to shift to a model where farmers are getting a fair price for the animal proteins produced, where people across the world have access to affordable proteins, and last but not least, where animal farming reduces its impact on the environment (emissions, water quality through manure measurement, bio-diversity) significantly,” said Ivo Lansbergen, President, DSM Animal Nutrition & Health.

“Animal farming alone accounts for 14.5% of all human-derived greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. At DSM, we have been working for decades on innovative scientific solutions aimed at providing real answers to the challenges facing the agriculture industry including solutions for reduction in carbon emissions,” said David Nickell, VP of Sustainability & Business Solutions at DSM Animal Nutrition & Health.

Under the sustainability platform Reducing emissions from livestock, DSM offers innovative solutions that specifically target these, such as:

• • ProAct for improving nitrogen utilisation efficiency (NUE) in poultry and thereby reducing the loss of nitrogen compounds to the environment between 7 – 17% depending on the diet formulation.
• • VevoVitall® for ammonia reduction in swine operations – a well proven and documented technology that reduces ammonia emission by up t0 17%.
• • HiPhos is a highly efficient feed phytase for reducing the reliance of finite reserves of mineral phosphates (P) and unlocking the plant-bound phosphate in the diet itself, resulting in less excretion of excess P to the environment.
• • Bovaer® for direct methane reduction in ruminants – consistently reducing methane emissions by a minimum of 30%.
• • Digestarom® from BIOMIN improves feed efficiency in commercial animal production with demonstrated decreases in environmental emissions i.e. annual ammonia (-26%) and odour (-48%), thus reducing the overall carbon footprint.

“We launched our ‘Reducing Emissions’ platform as a call to action across the industry to provide real answers to worldwide challenges of sustainable animal protein production. All our sustainability problems essentially come back to one: we need to produce more while using and emitting less. We’re looking to lead by example, innovate, and to make every stage of the value chain more emission friendly,” said Christie Chavis, VP of Specialties Business Solutions at DSM Animal Nutrition & Health.