SDG 15 Life on land

Progress in preserving and sustainably using the Earth’s terrestrial species and ecosystems is uneven. Improvements continue to be made in managing forests sustainably and protecting areas important for biodiversity, but land productivity, biodiversity loss and poaching and trafficking of wildlife remain serious concerns. Enabling a sustainable development implies protecting, restoring and promoting sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems ; managing forests sustainably ; combating desertification ; and halting and reversing land degradation and biodiversity loss.

Source: United Nations

• Target 15.2: By 2020, promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, halt deforestation, restore degraded forests and substantially increase afforestation and reforestation globally.
  
• Target 15.3: By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world.
  
• Target 15.4: By 2030, ensure the conservation of mountain ecosystems, including their biodiversity, in order to enhance their capacity to provide benefits that are essential for sustainable development.

Source: SDG Compass

• Deforestation and forest degradation
• Genetic diversity of farms and domesticated animals
• Landscapes forest management and fiber sourcing
• Mountain ecosystems
• Natural habitat degradation
• Terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems

Danone is engaged on SDG 15 as a commitment

Danone’s businesses are directly linked to nature and agriculture. Climate change impacts natural cycles of water, soils, as well as biodiversity and ecosystem services that play a vital role in the food system including forests. Contributing to tackle this huge challenge is critical for our ability to strengthen the resilience of our global food system.

Forest preservation

Recognizing that forest preservation is essential for the planet and requires the action of all parties involved, Danone has engaged in a dedicated forest footprint policy, built on two complementary pillars:

• Eliminate deforestation impacts from its supply chain by end of 2020

Through its Forest Footprint Policy, Danone has made a commitment to eliminate deforestation from its supply chain by end of 2020. This ambition covers all of Danone products and activities that may have a potentially negative impact on forest management. The policy prioritizes six major commodities: palm oil, soy, paper and cardboard packaging, wood biomass, cane sugar and bio-based plastics for packaging. This ambition will be achieved by developing specific sourcing strategies for each key commodities that are associated with high deforestation risks in specific geographies:
 

Palm oil:

Danone is committed to ensure that all palm oil used is traceable to the plantation where it was produced, comes from plantations whose expansion does not threaten forests classified as High Conservation Value (HCV) or High Carbon Stock (HCS); comes from plantations whose expansion does not threaten tropical peatlands, regardless of their depth (learn more).
 

Paper & board:

Danone’s specific paper/cardboard packaging policy has three objectives: actively reduce the weight of paper packaging for each product;  prioritize the use of recycled fibers; whenever possible, give priority to FSC-certified virgin fibers (learn more).
 

Soy:

Danone pledged to contribute to the development of a more responsible soy value chain. Danone is committed to ensure full transparency across the entire supply chain, promote sourcing from deforestation-risk-free zones and encourage the use of local crop alternatives to imported soy (learn more).
 

Other commodities:

Roadmaps on Cane sugar, timber for energy and bio-based plastic for packaging will be communicated step by step when co-built and aligned with key stakeholders.

• Pro-actively contribute to programs preventing deforestation or promoting reforestation

Danone contributes to reforestation and forests restoration through the Livelihoods Carbon Fund with nine other private companies. It seeks to invest in three types of projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America: (i) restoration and preservation of natural ecosystems; (ii) agroforestry and soil restoration through sustainable agricultural practices; and (iii) access to rural energy to reduce deforestation.
 

Agroforestry:

Agroforestry is the combined planting of trees and crops. Projects supported by the Livelihoods Funds help empower farmers with this technique, which holds multiple benefits for productivity and biodiversity: trees naturally enhance soil fertility, reducing the need for chemical fertilizers while preventing soil erosion and sequestering huge amounts of CO2.
 

Mangrove restoration:

Mangroves are groups of trees and shrubs that grow where sea and land meet. They are one of the planet’s richest ecosystems, a home for fish, crabs, shrimps and mollusks that also acts as a living shield for coastal regions. The Livelihoods Carbon Fund has enabled particularly vulnerable communities to restore their mangrove forests.
 

Protect biodiversity and soil health

Danone believes that the food we eat and the water we drink should come from a sustainable and diverse ecosystem. Danone's ambition is to produce healthy food which contributes to protect biodiversity through regenerative agriculture practices. Soil, in particular, has a specific role, in addition to sequestering carbon, healthy soils boost productivity and reinforce climate resiliency and protect the biodiversity.

• For instance, in the U.S., Danone North America is working on progressively reducing the use of practices and technology that lead to soil degradation. It promotes agricultural practices which enhance soil organic matter content and help sequester more carbon such as using diverse crop rotations, reducing soil tillage, retaining crop residues as mulch, growing cover crops and enhancing eco-efficiency of any essential inputs. It will contribute to restore soil health and protect vegetal and animal biodiversity in the yields.
• Protecting natural habitat around our water resources: for instance, Fundación Villavicencio was created in 2015 to manage and protect biodiversity of the Villavicencio Natural Reserve (Argentina).

• Supporting dairy farmers on their journey towards regenerative agriculture
• C-Sequ: Developing guidelines for the calculation of carbon sequestration for the dairy cattle sector
• Financing Regenerative Agriculture Implementations, Protecting Farmer Livelihoods
• Science-Based Targets for water stewardship in almond cultivation
• Livelihoods Carbon Fund: ‘Araku 2’, From degraded lands to a biodiverse terroir for premium coffee & food forests: the journey of 40,000 Araku farmers in India
• Livelihoods Carbon Fund: Restoring mangroves in Senegal to sequester carbon and improve the lives of the local communities
• Danone Ecosystem Fund: ‘Madre Tierra’, a regenerative agriculture project with Mexican strawberry producers 

Find more information about Danone's initiatives in the Impactful Projects section of our 2019 Integrated Annual Report.

• Danone spearheaded the One Planet Business for Biodiversity (OP2B) coalition with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) which was launched at the UN General Assembly in September 2019 and aims to protect and restore cultivated and natural biodiversity. Twenty companies had signed on by the end of 2019 (learn more).
• Danone is leading the global business coalition “Farming for Generations” which aims to identify best practices and innovations across different farming models, farm sizes and geographies (learn more).
  
• In May 2014, Danone joined The Forest Trust (TFT), an international non-profit organization that works with businesses to place environmentally and socially responsible products on the market.
  
• Danone has been member of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) since 2011.
• Danone is a founding member of the Support Asia For Sustainable Palm Oil (SASPO), created in 2016.
• Danone supports the principles of "The Palm Oil Innovation Group" (POIG) and signed-up the Charter for Retailers and Manufacturers. POIG brings together leading NGOs with palm oil producing companies, brands and other actors in the supply chain to share and develop leading practices to ensure that responsible palm oil becomes available in the market place.
• Danone is a member of the Roundtable on Responsible Soy and has signed the Cerrado Manifesto, a call for action to stop deforestation and vegetation loss in Brazil's Cerrado.      

• SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
• SDG 12: Responsible Consumtion and Production
• SDG 13: Climate Action

• Preserve and renew the planet’s resources