Developing Nestlé’s first Net Zero Dairy Farm in South Africa

Nestlé today announced the Skimmelkrans Net Zero Carbon Emissions Project: an ambition to create the company’s first carbon neutral dairy farm, located in George, South Africa. Nestlé has committed that by 2023, the farm will be carbon net zero.

Cow manure produces methane: one of the most harmful greenhouse gases emitted into the environment from cattle and dairy farming. At Skimmelkrans, cow manure is collected while they graze, and then goes into a press that separates the solids form the liquids. This ensures that there is no moisture left in the finished product: the solids are released back into the soil as compost, and the liquids go back into the pastures as irrigation, meaning that less methane is released into the air. In April 2021, the soil will be tested, screened, and analysed by soil experts and the results will determine how much closer the farm is to the net zero carbon emissions goal.

Nestlé