Support farmer suppliers to raise the social, animal welfare and environmental standards of dairy farming.
At Synlait, we believe economic, environmental, and social resilience are interlinked. Farming sustainably is complex and challenging which is why we provide social and economic support to farmers. Together, we aim to lead the industry and uplift the social, animal welfare and environmental standards of dairy farming.
We financially reward farmer suppliers who achieve continuous excellence through our third-party audited, on-farm sustainability programme.
Our on-farm sustainability programme was created in 2013, and it is the cornerstone of our sustainable farming strategy. It takes a holistic approach to all aspects of farming and attracts progressive and innovative farmers who adhere to the highest standards in terms of milk quality, animal welfare, environmental protection, and social responsibility.
The programme is widely recognised in the New Zealand dairy industry, and while participation is voluntary, most of our farmers are now certified. It is constantly evolving, and each year we add new provisions, incentives, tools, and knowledge, each an important step in our mission to reduce impact and grow profitability in sustainable ways. For example, we recently updated our greenhouse gas incentive payment to encourage the implementation of emissions reduction measures.
To provide our customers with assurance around the quality of our verification processes, certified farms are audited annually to the ISO/IEC 17065 standard. Because Synlait owns the standard, we can introduce or modify incentive payments to reflect our priorities. This means we can co-develop with our customers new requirements and incentive payments that promote change in specific areas to align with their sustainability targets.
