During spring, Valio’s dairy farms will be able to use the new Esko tool facilitating ESG sustainability reporting. The ESG management tool for dairy farms will help the farms to generate a clear ESG report that aligns with sustainability requirements and without having specialised expertise. For example, the report can help to smoothen the process when applying for bank financing. The tool also supports Valio’s target of zero emissions from milk production by 2035.
Sustainability reporting by farms is currently voluntary. However, the financiers of various farm development projects are increasingly interested in the different sustainability aspects of the projects they finance. In sustainability reporting, dairy farms are required to show the climate and nature impacts of their operations and explain how sustainability is advanced in the business in line with the ESG breakdown. ESG reporting tracks three areas of sustainability: environmental, social responsibility and governance.
“Sustainability is an increasingly important competitive factor for farms that are developing their operations. When assessing sustainability, the most accurate figures and reliable indicators should be used. The Esko tool developed by Valio is designed to facilitate ESG reporting by dairy farmers,” notes Development Manager Hanna Castro from Valio’s Primary Production.
ESG information needed when applying for funding
Financiers are increasingly requiring production’s direct and indirect emissions reporting and practical evidence of sustainable business practices. The ESG report produced with the help of the Esko tool will assist farms when applying for investment funding. Without the tool, it would be laborious and challenging for the entrepreneurs to compile figures and calculate emissions.
Data about the farm’s different aspects of sustainability are entered into the Esko tool. Making this process easier is the fact that Esko extracts existing data directly from different systems. The entrepreneur automatically gets access to data from the Carbo® Farm calculator and Naseva, the Centralised Health Care Register for Finnish cattle herds. In addition, the AI assistant helps the farmer in entering data into the blank fields. Valio has developed the Esko tool together with the IT company Gofore. Esko will be available to all 3,200 Valio dairy farmers at the end of May.
“Esko can help farms to concretely benefit from their sustainability work in many ways. It can help farms to communicate their sustainability more clearly to different stakeholders. Dairy farms can also monitor their own progress in different sustainability areas and compare their own farm performance with that of peer farmers. This supports the management and development of sustainability on farms,” says Castro.
Esko is an example of how digital solutions in industry will increasingly emphasise comprehensive knowledge-based management, automation and user-centricity.
“Solutions like Esko advance more sustainable business operations, bring growth and efficiency, and help automate work phases and production. In addition, the needs of the users, the dairy farmers, are a priority. The user-centric application converts Valio’s sustainability data and know-how into a functional tool that supports daily life and the future of business on dairy farms,” notes Outi Määttä, Director, Intelligent Industry Business at Gofore.
