Developing our circular economy
Sabine, Head of R&D in the butter division, tells us about the life cycle analysis (LCA) carried out for butter and its use in developing eco-design projects
Why did you embark on an eco-design project for butter?
"The project was identified as a key element in our Passion du Lait ® CSR strategy to raise awareness among employees and train them in Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), which is a fairly new concept that’s still in development. In addition, because LCA is considered a highly complex computational tool, we had to engage the expertise of a consulting firm - O2m based in Rennes (35)."
What main lessons do you learn from it?
"Butter was used as the product family for the pilot study. As a result of the pilot, we realised that the main challenge involved in eco-designing butter was the milk, and consequently the upstream farming, which represents 94% of the impact. However, it’s also essential that we work on the entire packaging operation, for example, because that represents the equivalent of several tonnes of CO2 that Laïta needs to avoid. Since data relating to the entire life cycle has to be gathered (raw materials, process, use, recycling, packaging, etc.) in order to calculate the LCA, I had to work outside my normal R&D environment. My main contact was Julie in management control, and on occasion I had to work cross-sector with purchasing, the energy division, supplies, sales and marketing."
Where do you go from here, now that you’ve completed this initial LCA calculation and identified the steps in the eco-design process?
"We can now capitalise on the knowledge we’ve acquired by using the LCA in our eco-design Ecofilm butter packaging project. LCA is more than just a figure for assessing our performance for environmental campaigns in the future, it’s also a tool we can employ to compare different approaches and avoid transferring impact. A decision may be very good in terms of climate change criteria, but it may just shift the impact or the pollution to another sphere (water, air, etc.). It’s also a tool we’re hoping to use to ensure our communications are robust and accurate."
The main challenge involved in eco-designing butter was the milk, and consequently upstream farming. However, we also have to work on the entire packaging set-up, for example, because that represents the equivalent of several tonnes of CO2 that Laïta needs to avoid.
![]()
Sabine
Head of R&D, Butter Division
Explore our other commitments and testimonials
Our other pillars
Committed and passionate
All about our approach #committed
Because our environmental, human and social commitment is a daily reality, we place CSR at the heart of our actions.
