Dairy-food producer, Glenisk, has scooped a top sustainability award at the World Dairy Innovation Awards 2021.
The Offaly-based company took the Best Sustainability/CSR Initiative for its One Million Trees Campaign, in association with Irish charity, Self Help Africa.
The company was one of 222 entries from 25 countries across 20 categories to be considered at the 2021 awards.
Glenisk beat off stiff competition in the category from: Fonterra Cooperative group with its NZMP Carbonzero Certified Organic Butter; EcoTensil’ AquaDot EcoSpoon for packaging and foodservice; and Müller UK & Ireland’s Müller Advantage.
Self Help Africa and Glenisk
In early 2020, Glenisk partnered with Self Help Africa with the aim of planting one million trees in sub-Saharan Africa.
The premise was that for every one native tree planted in Ireland, 10 trees would be planted in Africa.
According to Self Help Africa, trees provide households in Africa with food, income, shade, shelter, and they also play a valuable role in rehabilitating degraded land.
In addition, the campaign has played its part in offsetting climate change impacts.
Did you know? One mature tree can absorb 20kg of carbon from the atmosphere in a year.
And so, in May 2021, the campaign saw one million trees planted in Africa and 100,000 trees planted in Ireland.
Offsetting carbon footprint
In March 2021 a new collaboration, ‘Another One Million Trees’ was launched with Glenisk.
Additionally, Irish business are being invited to get involved, with the opportunity to plant trees in Ireland and Africa as a means of offsetting a company’s carbon footprint.
This campaign is part of a wider UN-backed movement ‘One Trillion Trees’, which aims to be one of the biggest global reforestation efforts in history.
The World Dairy Innovation Awards are a celebration of innovation and excellence across the global food industry. They are the longest and most established awards scheme in the industry.