The move was prompted as the business aspired to position itself as the world’s leading producer of sustainable meats and for all of its meat to be climate-neutral by 2050.
As part of the pledge, Danish Crown said it would reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases for each kilogram of pork it produced from farm to fork by at least 50%.
Additionally, it also committed that 90% of the pigs supplied to its Danish abattoirs would come from sustainability-certified farmers by the end of this year.
Danish Crown group CEO Jais Valeur believed there was a “huge market” for sustainable meat in the future.
“We want to capture this market and create a brand as the most sustainable producer of meat-based food products. We have a strong starting point, as our Danish owners are already leading the way on very many parameters, and this is something that we must now build on,” said Valeur.
“Pork has unjustifiably been in the firing line for climate impact. We’re going to change this, because we now know that we could have been talking about sustainability from as early as the mid-2000s.”
In terms of its other meat products, Danish Crown revealed that it had not set out its climate goals for the likes of beef and veal, but they would be closely aligned with its sustainability targets for pork.