Viking Malt partners up with Improvin’ to reduce supply chain emissions in barley.
Viking Malt, a globally acknowledged producer of malt, is introducing a new sustainability performance platform, developed by the Swedish technology company Improvin’.
The AI-based platform empowers Viking Malt to measure and reduce the carbon footprint of their malting barley and monitor activities promoting biodiversity, using precise field-level data.
The multi-year effort will engage over 1200 farmers in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Poland and Lithuania, making it an ambitious sustainability initiative.
The platform is a significant step towards supply chain sustainability in the malting industry.
Viking Malt has set Science Based Targets, committing to a 42% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from its own activities (Scope 1 & 2) by 2030. However, the majority of Viking Malt’s total emissions, 87%, are Scope 3 emissions from their suppliers, mainly occurring on-farm.
Many of Viking Malt’s customers are large enough to have reduction targets covering even their Scope 3 emissions. To support their clients in achieving this goal, Viking Malt is committed to working with its stakeholders across the supply chain, identifying areas for emissions reductions and adjusting processes and practices.
With barley sourced from farmers across Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Poland and Lithuania, Viking Malt has been seeking ways to effectively measure and reduce these emissions.
Annika Wilhelmson, VP of Sustainability, Innovation & Marketing at Viking Malt Group: “Our farmers are central to our sustainability journey. With this new platform, we're empowering over 1200 farmers across Europe to actively engage in climate-smart and sustainable farming. This enables us to track and validate the impact of their sustainable practices effectively and fosters a collaborative approach to reducing emissions.”
The new platform provides Viking Malt with a detailed overview of the farms’ sustainability performance, setting a foundation for sustainable farming initiatives in which growers can adjust their practices based on feedback that builds on real-time data.
With the platform’s scalable data collection, farmer reporting becomes easy.
“We want our farmers to be able to focus on sustainable and profitable agriculture, not extensive reporting,” Annika emphasizes.
The new platform equips Viking Malt with a verified ingredient footprint, biodiversity data and supply chain insights that they can share with their network of breweries, distilleries and food manufacturers. Viking Malt expects this transparency to drive positive change across the industry.
Annika concludes: “Our commitment to sustainable food and beverage production is shared by the industry. Success requires a collaborative approach throughout, and even beyond, our own value chain. We're excited to lead and inspire our partners and customers on this journey.”
Niklas Wallsargård, CEO of Improvin’ shares his enthusiasm: “We're both proud and excited to work with Viking Malt, a family company showing deep commitment to drive sustainable impact through their products. Together, we can drive a meaningful change in this industry.”
Contact
Viking Malt: Annika Wilhelmson, +358 44 555 7913, [email protected]
About Viking Malt
Viking Malt is a globally acknowledged producer of malt for breweries, distilleries, and food manufacturers. With six malt houses in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, and Poland, Viking Malt offers a diverse range of malt varieties, catering to the unique needs of their customers. The company advocates for increased sustainability through malt by promoting regenerative farming practices, continuously improving energy and water efficiency in the malting process, reducing emissions, and leading innovation in new types of malts.
About Improvin’
Improvin’ is a Swedish technology company providing a sustainability performance platform for the agri-food industry. Food brands, processors and mills use the platform to quantify, verify and report emissions from their primary production and collaborate with their suppliers to reduce emissions and enhance biodiversity. Improvin's digital infrastructure enables agri-food businesses to incorporate sustainability into their existing sourcing processes while meeting regulatory standards for reporting with primary data.
