Dawn Meats lands double win in Green Food and Beverage Producer Awards

Pictured is Niall Browne CEO & Gill Higgins, Group Head of CSR and Sustainability, Dawn Meats

Dawn Meats has again been recognised for their ongoing commitment to sustainability with a double success in the inaugural Green Food & Beverage Producer Awards. The new awards are part of the annual Green Awards and look to celebrate sustainable food practices undertaken by producers and processors in Ireland.

Supporting their ambition to be recognised as “Europe’s most sustainable meat company”, Dawn Meats were named as the Best Sustainable Meat Producer in Ireland at the online ceremony on November 5^th, with a number of recent and ongoing achievements as key parts to their success. The company remains the only Irish food processor to be recognised with BITC Ireland’s Business Working Responsibly (BWR) mark which was awarded to all its Irish sites in 2019 having initially been achieved in 2017 for its flagship plant in Waterford. As Europe’s first beef and lamb processor to have their science-based targets approved by the SBTi in 2019, Dawn Meats have continued to make progress on GHG reduction targets.

A key part of Dawn Meats’ sustainability success has been the significant progress made on group-wide targets as part of their wider sustainability strategy. Over the first 4 years of a 10-year strategy launched in 2015 Dawn Meats have:

• Achieved 45% of their energy intensity reduction targets
• Achieved 57% of their water intensity reduction targets
• Achieved 60% of the Scope 1 and 2 CO2 emissions reduction targets

Dawn Meats’ commitment to its suppliers and wider supply chain was further recognised through the Sustainable Supply Chain Achievement Award. Through Origin Green, Dawn Meats works with their farmer suppliers to maximise farmer membership of the Sustainable Beef and Lamb Assurance Scheme.  Each farm is carbon footprinted every 18 months as a member of the Bord Bia scheme, with advice provided on how to reduce the carbon footprint of farms, helping to reduce emissions right across the supply chain.

In terms of packaging, Dawn Meats has converted over 1,100 tons of plastic into recyclable mono materials and in 2019 removed non-recyclable black plastic from the vast majority of products sold through retail multiples.

Niall Browne, CEO of Dawn Meats, said: “Our commitment to sustainable business practices remains as strong as ever, and these two awards are a testament to both our team and suppliers who work each day to reduce emissions, energy usage and create a more sustainable food production sector. We are now 5 years into our 2025 sustainability strategy, and we have every confidence that we will meet and exceed those targets by 2025.”

Gill Higgins, Group Head of CSR and Sustainability, said: “It is a real honour to secure not just one, but two awards in the inaugural Green Food & Beverage Producer Awards. These awards further underpin the many activities we undertake with all of our stakeholders to become Europe’s most sustainable meat company. Covid-19 has challenged us all to think differently, and it is important that sustainability still remains a priority over the coming months and years.”

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