Land and Water

Healthy freshwater, soil and ecosystems are essential to the long-term success of our business, farmers’ businesses, and to communities.
We believe protecting and restoring the environment is critical to safeguard opportunities for future generations.


To achieve this, we’re working to develop the skills, knowledge and systems to regenerate the environment throughout our global supply chain. 

Our focus areas

We are working together to care for people and make a positive impact on society, and this means:

On farm water sustainability

We want New Zealand’s land and water to be healthy, we want New Zealanders to be able to swim where they want to, and we’re working with our farmers, doing our part to get there.

Sustainable catchments

Achieving sustainable water catchments in the regions where we operate means working with others to help protect and regenerate the waterways.

Reducing our water use

Our factories depend on water. We acknowledge that water use across our 26 sites is significant, and we want to ensure our water use is as efficient as possible

Prioritising on-farm improvements

We’re working directly with our farmers to develop tailored Farm Environment Plans (FEPs) that provide each farmer with an action plan to improve the environmental footprint of their farm. 

Since we launched the FEP service in 2018, we have continued to develop our framework and delivery service, listening to feedback from farmers and ensuring they can remain a step ahead of future regulations and the requirements of our customers. 

At the end of FY21, more than 50% of all our New Zealand farmers had an FEP, on the way to a target of 100% by 2025.

  

To achieve sustainable water catchments where we operate, we know we can achieve more by working with others to help protect and regenerate waterways and biodiversity. 

We are connecting and empowering farmers, sites and local communities to get them involved and help accelerate progress towards local community environmental goals.

Our Living Water partnership with the New Zealand Department of Conservation, established in 2013, is focused on five catchments to identify game-changing and scalable solutions that show dairying and freshwater can thrive together.

Aligned with best-practice thinking, we’re prioritising water efficiency at our manufacturing sites in water-constrained regions. Our target is to reduce water use at these sites by 30% by 2030 and we’ve made significant progress.

In 2017, we laid out our Co-op’s commitment to how we will play our part to protect and improve New Zealand’s waterways.