Food production and the food industry play an important role in the work against climate change. At Meira, we are among the top Finnish companies committed to this work and already in 2022 we have joined the growing international group of companies that have approved their emission reduction targets by the Science Based Targets Initiative’s impartial expert panel. Climate work is a key part of our responsibility work based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 

The emission reduction goals for Meira’s own operations (scope 1 and 2) are in line with the goal of the Paris climate agreement. Meira is committed to reducing the absolute scope 1 and 2 emissions resulting from its own operations by 80 percent by 2028 compared to 2019 emissions. Read more about the results of our climate work in 2023 here.

In Meira’s own operations, climate work boils down to improving energy efficiency and increasing renewable energy. This work has been ongoing for years. We systematically reduce the energy demand of Meira’s operations, we use origin-verified, minimum emission-free or renewable electricity, and we have a roadmap for replacing natural gas with biogas and transitioning to renewable district heating. These decisions are in line with our promise “Fairly, For Far Better Moments”. 

Part of the climate work required by SBTi is to also calculate the emissions of the value chain outside of own production (so-called scope 3) in accordance with the GHG protocol and set a target for the climate work also in relation to these emissions. The GHG protocol is the most well-known global standard for carbon footprint calculation. 

In industrial production, it is very typical that the majority of emissions are generated in the value chain outside of one’s own direct operations. The largest single source of emissions in Meira’s operations is the cultivation of coffee and spices, where climate impacts arise from, for example, the production and use of fertilizers. That’s why we have an active discussion with our partners operating in the countries of origin. We encourage them to find out their own climate impacts and to take development measures to reduce these impacts. We commit our largest suppliers to model their own greenhouse emissions and set science-based emission reduction targets in accordance with the Paris Climate Agreement. The countries of origin of coffee and training and encouraging farmers in climate-friendly farming methods play a particularly important role. To further indicate this work, in 2024 we will also set and validate the FLAG (Forest, Land & Agriculture) target for the land use sector as part of our SBT package. For the first time, the FLAG targets makes the emissions of the Forest, Land & Agriculture sector visible in the GHG calculation and points the way for the work that reduces emissions in our value chain. 

Meira Oy’s science-based targets:

  • Meira Oy commits to reduce absolute scopes 1 and 2 GHG emissions 80 % by 2028 from a 2019 base year*.
  • Meira Oy commits to reduce absolute scope 3 GHG emissions from upstream transportation and distribution and waste generated in operations 50 % over the same time frame.
  • Meira Oy commits that 90 % of its suppliers by emissions covering purchased goods and services will have science-based targets by 2025.

*The target boundary includes land-related emissions and removals from bioenergy feedstocks.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission development 2019-2023

  • The year 2023 was again a normal year for Meira in terms of coffee production after the exceptional year after the fire. This is also visible in the increase in total emissions compared to 2022. The reasons behind the increase in emissions are largely logical: the return to normal coffee production after the fire and also partly explained via more accurate emission factors in Scope 3 operations. When examining the emission distribution and development of greenhouse gases from Meira’s operations, the fire at Meira’s factory in 2021 and the full return to normal production only by 2023 must be taken into account. For this reason, for example, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions have increased since 2022, when the production interruption returned to the normal roasting of coffee and the usual volume of coffee procurement. For example, emissions from the use of natural gas increased by +77% between 2022 and 2023 due to this. 
  •  Emissions from Meira’s own operations (direct and indirect, i.e. Scope 1-2) increased +15% compared to 2022, but compared to 2019 they have still decreased; -48% (and there is also a reduction in emissions compared to 2021, -18%, each previous so-called normal year). The total emissions of Meira’s own operations were 1403.2 tCO2e in 2023.
  • The total emissions of Meira’s entire value chain (Scope 1-3) were 93,397 tCO2e in 2023 and they decreased by about -18% compared to 2019. And compared to the latest productively normal year 2021, the total emissions of 2023 (Scope 1-3) have also slightly decreased -2.6% (-2446 tCO2e). 

 

On this page, we report annually on the development of greenhouse gas emissions in our value chain.