Abstract
- Danone has lower methane emissions from contemporary milk by 29.8% vs. 2020, placing the corporate inside a fraction of its 30% 2030 goal 5 years early.
- The largest 2025 positive aspects got here from procurement shifts (17.6%) and farm‑degree enhancements (11.2%), together with herd and manure‑administration upgrades.
- Practically 42% of key elements now come from regenerative‑transition farms, indicating a speedy pivot towards decrease‑emissions sourcing.
In early 2026, Danone stays the one trade main with emissions discount targets tied particularly to methane from milk and dairy merchandise.
The corporate views methane mitigation as “probably the most fast alternative to decelerate world warming” and has dedicated to decreasing absolute methane emissions by 30% by 2030.
On the finish of 2025, the group’s methane reductions sit at 29.8% in comparison with its 2020 baseline – which means the corporate has almost hit its 2030 goal 5 years forward of time.
So how has the dairy main achieved this?
Between 2020 and 2024, the maker of Activia and Oikos lower methane by 25% – a lower of over 1 MtCO2e of its milk emissions. The reductions had been achieved most notably within the AMEA area; on account of the corporate’s motion plans on milk, and thru the divestment of Horizon Natural, the most important USDA-certified natural dairy model. Favorable climate situations additionally assist increase productiveness and scale back emissions per kilogram of milk.
In 2025, the reductions had been achieved by means of:
- procurement selections: 17.6%
- farm efficiency administration: 11.2% together with herd administration (5.9%) and manure administration (3.6%), farm portfolio combine (1.2%) and feed components (0.5%), and
- different elements akin to change in scope and methodology: 1%.
We take a look at each intimately under.
Procurement technique
Danone’s predominant methane discount lever in 2025 was linked to procurement decisions – notably, milk volumes. This implies Danone is altering how a lot milk it sources – and from whom – with a purpose to enhance its sustainability efficiency.
Whereas the dairy main just isn’t specific about what the amount selections are linked to, there are a number of clues that the corporate is more and more leaning in direction of low-emissions and regenerative ag sources for instance.
In 2025, almost half (42%) of key elements had been sourced from farms transitioning to regenerative agriculture, together with dairy farms. The info reveals Danone is accelerating its efforts in that respect – having elevated its regenerative sourcing by 14% in simply three years, and three% over the previous yr alone.
The corporate can be embedding methane necessities in its contracts, with suppliers now anticipated to work in direction of assembly methane-related efficiency targets. The identical goes for its long-term contracted dairy farmers within the US and Europe (which provide 30% of milk purchased by the corporate) – they too are tied to adopting regenerative ag practices, finishing up manure and herd administration enhancements, and monitoring farm efficiency, with Danone incentivising these efforts and offering long-term worth stability as nicely.
This strategy has resulted in half of Danone’s dairy ingredient volumes to be coated by contractual GHG discount targets, and 75% of its suppliers by quantity to have now dedicated to science-based targets.
Extra broadly, methane and local weather impacts are integrated into sourcing selections throughout classes, with procurement groups being professionally skilled to combine methane and sustainability metrics in shopping for selections.
Farm-level administration
Danone attributes 11.2% of its methane emissions reductions to farm efficiency. Inside that, the most important enchancment (5.9%) got here from herd administration methods – together with higher herd productiveness and reproductive effectivity and herd construction – which led to lowered methane per litre of milk.
Manure administration enhancements delivered 3.6% of reductions, pushed by improved manure dealing with methods, higher storage practices, lowered anaerobic manure decomposition, and different strategies. Portfolio combine enhancements – akin to shifting to decrease‑methane‑depth farms or areas – delivered 1.2% discount.
Farm monitoring is an important a part of how the corporate tracks and studies emissions at supply. Over 90% of Danone’s direct milk-collection volumes are monitored by means of a science-based monitoring software – be it the Cool Farm Device (utilized in 18 nations for farm‑degree GHG and methane accounting) or the CAP’2ER (adopted in France).
Scope and methodology modifications
In 2025, Danone re-categorised a few of its emissions between scopes because it adopted new calculation frameworks and altered its supplier-level and contemporary milk emissions methodologies.
For instance, the corporate revised its methane emissions scope to align it with SBTi FLAG steerage. Because of this, milk manufacturing at Danone‑owned farms (beforehand counted as Scope 3 bought‑milk emissions) moved to Scope 1 (FLAG); and storage emissions in retailers’ warehouses additionally moved from ‘use of bought merchandise’ to downstream transport and distribution. The 2020 methane baseline has additionally been recalculated per GHG Protocol and SBTi necessities.
Total, Danone is closing in on its methane milestone, proving that efficient mitigation is feasible with out impacting profitability.
