In November 2023, we announced the launch of Fonterra’s Climate Roadmap: Our strategy towards net zero 2050, which includes Fonterra’s 2030 targets. In part two of the interview below, we talk to Linda Mulvihill, General Manager for Energy and Climate about Fonterra’s next milestones in reducing manufacturing emissions and plans for transitioning off fossil fuels.

Watch Part 2 of the interview with Linda or read key Q&As from the interview below:

Q&A Part 2 with Linda Mulvihill - General Manager for Energy and Climate, Fonterra

Q: What are Fonterra’s next major milestones for manufacturing?

We've got several projects underway. The first one is our Lactose Heat Recovery project at our Clandeboye site in the South Island which is a great demonstration of energy efficiency. We're currently converting our two coal boilers at our Hautapu site to use renewable wood pellets and we're also installing our first electrode boiler at our Edendale site in Southland.

By the end of 2024*, we will no longer be using coal as a fuel source in the North Island, which is a significant milestone for Fonterra**. We'll be about a fifth of the way to reducing our absolute emissions by 2030 which is equivalent to taking approximately 143,000 cars off New Zealand roads.

Q: Are there any exciting innovations on the horizon?

In New Zealand we have an abundant supply of renewable energy. There's a lot of forestry which can be used to make woodchip or wood pellets to displace our coal use. Our electricity system is over 80% renewable and is generated from sources such as hydro, solar, wind and geothermal.

Innovations we are looking at for our transition off fossil fuels:

• We're looking at a steam heat pump, which is quite exciting as we didn't think that a heat pump could go up to the temperatures that we need for within dairy processing. We've found a great partner with MAN Energy Solutions and we're taking the technology they apply in the oil and gas sector to see if it can apply within our manufacturing plants.
  
  
• We're looking at thermal energy storage, which is a way we can store energy to use within our plants. It's an emerging technology globally and we're looking to see how we could integrate and apply that within our manufacturing sites.
  
  
• We're looking at how we will transition our milk tanker fleet and a larger scale electrification of the fleet. But there's a few challenges with the charging of the fleet to make sure that they stay on the road and they're there to collect every single drop of our farmer’s milk.
  
  
• In addition, we are looking longer term in terms of how we might transition away from natural gas. There's quite a few different energy sources including: pyrolysis, which is a way to combust wood biomass to produce a gas; biogas, which uses landfill and other waste materials to create a renewable gas; and synthetic methane. All of these are different types of natural gases that we could put into our existing gas assets.
   

Fonterra is committed to reducing its emissions, you can see that by the fact that we have a plan and we are making these changes across our sites, across our fleet, and across our operations. We have passionate people that are driving these changes and looking at innovative ways to tackle the challenge of climate change.

*By end of December 2024.
**Reliant upon further investment at Waitoa to enable this to avoid coal use next winter peak – on track for FY25 delivery.