October DSF Member Profile: Emmi

Emmi have been an implementing member of the DSF for 10 years. This month, we invited Alina Röösli, Sustainability Project Manager, to provide further insights into the organisation’s sustainability focus and aligned actions.

 

About Emmi

The Emmi Group is a Swiss company headquartered in Lucerne. Founded in 1907 by dairy farmers’ cooperatives, the company has expertise and deep craftsmanship and produces quality dairy products and desserts and holds strong positions in coffee, functional nutrition and cheese. Innovation and responsibility drive Emmi, demonstrating long term thinking while acting with care towards people, animals, and nature. The company is committed to making sustainable dairy the norm, creating value in rural regions and helping to strengthen family-owned businesses. At the heart of its activities are people who take responsibility and shape the future together across generations.

 

Geographically, where do you operate?

The Emmi Group has a global presence in 13 countries across Europe, the U.S., South America and Tunisia and is represented with its quality products in around 90 countries whilst remaining closely connected to its roots in Switzerland.

 

What’s the sustainability focus for Emmi in the next 12 months?

Over the next 12 months, our sustainability efforts will continue to be guided by our three-pillar sustainability model: People, Communities and Planet. Under the Communities pillar, a key priority is sustainable dairy, which we are advancing in close collaboration with our farmers and partners across the value chain. At Emmi, we understand sustainable dairy as encompassing all aspects of milk production related to people, animals, the environment and economic viability. Because dairy farming is an important economic driver in rural areas and has a significant impact on animal welfare and the environment, we believe sustainable milk production must be location-appropriate, animal-friendly, climate-friendly and resource-efficient. Building on this approach, we remain committed to our science-based targets and to reducing greenhouse gas emissions across our value chain.

Emmi is currently focusing its sustainable dairy efforts on our key dairy markets Switzerland, Brazil and Chile, which together account for around 80% of our milk volume and milk-related emissions. Key priorities are to strengthen our data foundation through increased collection of primary farm-level data while beginning to implement practical reduction measures on farm.
If you would like to learn more about Emmi’s sustainability model, please visit our website.

 

Can you tell us about an initiative you have implemented that has delivered some tangible results?

The KlimaStaR Milk project was launched in 2022 by Emmi together with Central Switzerland Milk Producers (ZMP), Nestlé and aaremilch. It’s a collaborative initiative running until 2027 which aims to strengthen milk producers in their efforts to reduce GHG emissions and adapt their dairy farms to their local environment. Around 220 dairy farms are participating in the initiative across the organisations, not solely Emmi suppliers, and it is delivering a measurable impact at farm level.

The initiative is supported by the Federal Office of Agriculture and by Bern University of Applied Sciences School of Agricultural, Forestry and Food Sciences (HAFL), which acts as a scientific partner. By 2027, the dairy farms participating in the KlimaStaR Milk project are expected to achieve the following targets on GHG emissions, feed-food competition and land competition:

• Reduction of GHG emissions by 20%
• Reduction of feed-food competition* by 20%
• Reduction of land competition* by 20%

The results from the first four years have been encouraging:

• Participating farms reduced their greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 8% compared to the baseline.
• Food-feed competition* was reduced by 23%.
• Land-use competition* was reduced by 15%.

These results demonstrate that dairy farming can simultaneously improve climate performance and reduce feed-food and land competition. A key learning has been that there is no single solution that works for every farm.

*Definition feed-food competition and land competition
Feed-food competition occurs when animals use feed that would also be suitable for human consumption. Land competition occurs when the feed comes from land that could have been used to grow food for people.

Learnings from KlimaStaR Milk have helped shape a shared climate approach for the Swiss dairy industry. In 2024, BO Milch further developed the Swiss industry standard with a sector-wide climate calculator based on KLIR, the tool used in KlimaStaR Milk.
Available nationwide since 1 July 2026, the calculator measures farm-level greenhouse gas emissions per kilogram of milk, enables benchmarking and identifies effective reduction measures. From January 2027, BO Milch will also introduce a Climate Cent to reward farmers for climate-related efforts and investments.

Another ongoing project is transferring the learnings from KlimaStaR Milk to our other must-win regions Brazil and Chile. The approach starts with measuring farm-level emissions, identifying the most relevant reduction levers and developing action plans focused on reducing emissions at farm level.
In Brazil, emissions were first measured on 18 farms in 2023. The program has since expanded to 131 farms. A pilot program involving 13 farms was launched this year to implement targeted reduction measures, with results expected in the coming years. In Chile, the baseline assessment was completed in 2025 with 13 farms, three additional pilot farms joined the program in 2026. The first results are currently being evaluated.

For more information:
• Sustainability report: Group Reports - Emmi
• KlimaStaR Milk: Projektüberblick
• Emmi Website: Best dairy moments – today and for generations to come | Emmi Group
• Swiss industry standard: Swissmilk Green - International | Swissmilk
• KLIR: KLIR: A Model for Calculating Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Dairy Farms - Agrarforschung Schweiz
• BO Milch: Branchenorganisation Milch - IP Lait