A green product is a sustainable product intended to minimize its environmental impacts during its whole life cycle. They are manufactured using toxic-free chemicals, and environmentally friendly processes.

We understand that the definition of the term “green products” is arbitrary. Meelunie believes we need to benchmark our products against third-party certification or verification, which assures that an independent organization has audited and checked that Meelunie is following set rules – whether it’s crop protection biodiversity, or broad insight in topics such as, energy, water consumption and emissions.
Meelunie is a global supplier of plant-based ingredients. We offer a growing assortment of organic certified, sustainably produced products. These products may include organic certified protein, starches and dry milled products.

Our global presence on 5 continents, supplying over 100 countries, means that our ingredients are globally or locally sourced. Meelunie joined the FairClimateFund and GoodShipping Program in an effort to decarbonize our supply chain.

Organic farming is an agricultural method that aims to produce food using natural substances and processes. This means that organic farming tends to have a limited environmental impact, based on a number of key principles, such as:
• prohibition of the use of GMOs;
• forbidding the use of ionising radiation;
• limiting the use of artificial fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides;
• prohibiting the use of hormones and restrict the use of antibiotics and only when necessary for animal health.

The environmental impact of different protein sources varies significantly, animal protein sources generally have a higher environmental impact than plant-based sources (Corné van Dooren and Marije Seves, 2019). Half the world’s population already consumes 50 percent more protein than needed. If global consumers shifted 30 percent of their consumption of animal protein, this shift would, by itself, close half the GHG mitigation gap and nearly all of the land gap.
(World Resources Institute)

At this moment the organic products of Meelunie are certified by recognized organizations like SKAL and or Oregon Tilth. Meelunie aims to make its production processes of legume proteins as sustainable as possible by reducing energy use, investing in new technologies, and monitoring its environmental footprint. At this moment Meelunie did not finalize independent environmental footprints studies of its products.

Meelunie has started to partially compensate its CO2 footprint. The aim is to reduce & compensate its carriers by 100% in 2030. Throughout the analyzed product life cycles, transportation takes place, both of raw materials and the processed (intermediate) products. These ‘food miles’ can be very high and may contribute to a product’s carbon footprint. Weber and Matthews calculated an average transportation distance of over 8000 km in the life cycle chain of food products (Weber and Matthews, 2008). Despite this impressive distance, transportation on average accounts for only 11% of the carbon footprint of food. Apart from the distance, the means of transportation is also very important. For large ships, the energy use per tonne-kilometer is very low. According to the Ecoinvent database (Spielman et al., 2007) bulk carriers (55– 250 kt) emit about 25–250 times less greenhouse gasses per tonne-kilometer than trucks. Meelunie BV has introduced the CO2 Calculator, in which we and potentially our customer can compensate for the CO2 emissions during shipment.

No, life cycle assessment (LCA) is an effective tool in assessing the environmental performance of product or process or service. Life cycle assessment is a “cradle-to-gate” approach for assessing industrial systems.
Meelunie has analyzed life cycle assessment studies of starch production and processed vegetable products. It has compared them with animal protein sources. Our analysis was focused merely on carbon footprints. Meelunie did not review each individually supply chain. Meelunie will create a sustainability reporting tool for several of our ingredients and its supply chain.

Our key stakeholders, including employees, customers, shareholders, suppliers, communities, and NGO’s, play an active role in our pursuit to make positive impact. We are in constant contact with our stakeholders to learn from them and adopt some of their great ideas. We believe; A balanced world where plant-based solutions drive positive impact.

Meelunie is continuously expending its organic certified portfolio. To expand our green products portfolio from food to feed, we are reviewing whether our feed portfolio fits the requirements of the ASC chain of custody standard.

To quantify the environmental burdens associated with our products, Meelunie is investigating the possibilities to set up its own LCAs. Our cradle to gate LCAs will include all life cycle stages from raw material acquisition to final dispatch of products to our customers.

Meelunie believes the consumer is one of the stakeholders influencing its policies and objectives. The shift in consumer buying, with more consumers willing to pay for environmentally friendly products, reinforces the need for companies to increase their commitments to responsible business practices.

For further information/remarks/suggestions, please ask your current contact person and he/she will help you further. We’re also happy to reply to your e-mail, which you can send to positiveimpact@meelunie.com