For any corporation with multiple business lines across various sites, it is always challenging to make a synchronous change across the board, especially when it comes to sustainable development that requires a strong determination, a scientific approach, and abundant resources. For GREENFEED, whose business lines range from multiple fish, chicken and pig farms to numerous feed mills, cattle breeds, food processing, and veterinary drugs among others, the challenges are all the tougher.
However, the corporation has been managing to realize its sustainability commitment, as GREENFEED considered sustainable development the foundation for greenizing production and farming.
Adopting the circular economy
For the husbandry industry, keeping the environmental green and clean is always a tough issue, given the huge amount of water required and the enormous volume of waste discharged into the environment.
This is, of course, also a hard nut to crack for GREENFEED, which has managed to apply the circular economy across its integrated clean food chain FEED-FARM-FOOD.
Understanding the challenges in the livestock sector, GREENFEED has fully assessed the environmental impacts and implemented technical solutions for closed substance cycle waste management. The advantages of the 3F Plus (FEED – FARM – FOOD) chain and technological advancements have enabled GREENFEED to gradually approach and promote application of the circular economy model into production activities at its factories and farms. Many sustainability initiatives have been implemented and offered promising results such as wastewater treatment, waste management and renewable energy.
In particular, solid waste is processed by composting and earthworm farming method to transform pig manure into vermicompost. After harvesting, vermicompost will continue to undergo a process into organic fertilizer products, which can be directly used in cultivating crops or distributed to farmers.
According to the company’s 2022 sustainability report, GREENFEED in that year managed to produce 225 tons of organic fertilizer and over 2,400 liters of earthworm liquid for farming.
In fact, GREENFEED’s farm experts had struggled to find optimal solutions since 2018. Throughout hundreds of experiments, they have finally found the answer to earthworm care and reproduction. The first-ever model of pig waste treatment with earthworms has been applied at Cu Jut Farm in the Central Highlands and Dong Nam Bo 2 Farm in Binh Thuan.
The company has also managed to use pig waste to generate biomass as fuel for steam boilers in the company’s feed mills.
GREENFEED has resorted to renewable energy to reduce the environmental impact. At its Dong Nai Feed mill, for example, rooftop solar power has generated average power output of more than 3.38 million kWh a year, according to the company. To date, 12% of the company’s energy consumption comes from renewable sources, and GREENFEED will further raise this percentage in the coming time in line with its circular economy model.
In addition, GREENFEED has sought to minimize the use of plastic packaging materials. For example, with nine feed mills under its umbrella, GREENFEED has sought to distribute bulk feed via silo systems to replace 20% of plastic packaging.
In addition, the company has planted some 115,000 trees in many localities nationwide to enrich the ecology, and will step up this campaign to plant one million trees by 2030.
GREENFEED, in its 2022-2025 action plan and the vision to 2030, targets sustainable development as its strategic goal, with a stronger focus on environmental protection, said a representative of the company’s management.
“Our sustainable development goal is to minimize greenhouse gas emissions towards Net Zero in alignment with Vietnam’s goal to attain Net Zero by 2050,” said the representative.
Sharing goodness to the community
Supporting the community is also an important part of GREENFEED’s commitment to sustainability, and in this respect, the 4,000-strong company has done a lot to the community, especially benefiting children and women.
When launching its processed food products branded G Kitchen in early 2019, GREENFEED also kick-started its Meals of Smiles program.
After three years of implementation, “Meals of Smile” surpassed the two million meals milestone (equivalent to VND35 billion) by the end of 2022, helping improve nutrition for over 18,500 children at 60 shelters and 45 schools across the country. GREENFEED has been striving towards the target of three million meals in 2024 to ensure as many children as possible have the best start in life.
The company prioritizes the health and well-being of women, especially with the “Tiep Suc Nha Nong” (Empowering Farmers) program that focuses on enhancing the livelihoods of rural women farmers across the country.
Initiated since 2010, “Tiep Suc Nha Nong” has brought practical support to more than 2,500 farming households in 16 provinces and cities across the country, helping thousands of farmers improve their livelihood, and overcome poverty sustainably.
Under this program, VND38 billion of interest-free loans have been granted, with a payback rate of over 93%, alongside 855 tons of animal feed and two tons of organic fertilizer. Apart from interest-free loan support, various practical activities of “Tiep Suc Nha Nong” have been organized such as free consultation – training on livestock farming techniques for farmers, and awarding prizes to effective breeding households.
The company said “Tiep Suc Nha Nong” program will be expanded to more localities across the country, continuing to provide effective livestock solutions, helping farmers, especially rural women, to escape poverty.
In addition, as of last year, GREENFEED had donated 4,286 scholarships and tuition fees worth a total VND17.6 billion to children of its employees.
Due to its ceaseless efforts towards sustainability, GREENFEED this year has been conferred the Corporate Sustainability Award 2023, and most recently, on September 19, on the occasion of the company’s 20th birthday, it was awarded a Certificate of Merit from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for its outstanding contributions to the country’s sustainable agricultural development.
“The Certificate of Merit is a source of inspiration for the company’s unwavering efforts to maintain good business and to contribute to the comprehensive, sustainable development of the agricultural sector,” said Ly Anh Duy Quang, a board member of GREENFEED and Director of the Corporate Social Responsibility Department.
