On average, studies cited in their report indicate that plant-based drink products consumed in place of cow’s milk products result in lower land use, energy use, water use, and climate impact.

Oatly’s vision is to be a company that leads a global plant-based movement to reduce the production of cow’s milk products by half.

In 2021, the company doubled the number of Oatly-operated factories from three to six. Overall, production increased 57 percent.

As a result, Oatly’s corporate climate footprint increased 77 percent from 167,000 T CO2e in 2020 to 296,000 T CO2e in 2021.

The company’s impact per produced liter increased 13 percent from 0.558 to 0.629 COe.

The two main drivers of their corporate climate footprint are ingredients and transportation.

While Oatly’s packaging use continued to grow on par with our business growth in 2021, they maintained their share of 87 percent renewable or recycled packaging materials, the same proportion as in 2020.

Their corporate climate footprint for packaging increased 11 percent (approx. 0.007 kg CO2e per produced liter). They believe this change is due to an ability to gather more data and an increase in weight of some packaging.

Of the materials used, 45 percent was recycled material, which primarily consisted of recycled corrugated board used in secondary packaging.

Two factories in the U.S. (Ogden and Millville) sourced 100 percent renewable electricity in 2021, joining their two factories in Europe (Landskrona and Vlissingen) bringing their total of 100 percent renewable energy sources factories to four.

The company was able to repurpose 100 percent of their largest waste/byproduct stream—oat fiber residue.

Oatly was able to decrease water use per liter of product at their three facilities in operation prior to 2021 (Landskrona, Vlissingen and Millville).

In 2021, they began developing an approach to restorative and regenerative agriculture for oats that works toward the following outcomes: reducing and removing GHG emissions, increasing ecosystem function, and building farm viability and resilience.

The company expanded their pilot projects with farmers in the U.S. and Sweden on restorative models for growing oats.

Oatly continued into the third year of their “U.S. Oats for Oatly” Program in 2021 with 15 Midwest U.S. farmers and NGO partners to test the environmental and economic benefits of growing oats in rotation with the more-commonly grown corn and soy.

The company believes that if they can prove these benefits, they’ll help a wider community of American farmers incorporate oats into their crop rotations, thus expanding the supply of food-grade, U.S.- grown oats while improving soil health, water quality and biodiversity and diversifying farmers’ income opportunities.

Oatly will share preliminary lessons and results from this program after harvest in 2022.

In 2021, the company invited 56 suppliers—representing more than half of their direct material suppliers that deliver oats, packaging, and ingredients to Oatly sites—to participate in an Ecovadis assessment.

Transportation accounts for about 33 percent of their corporate climate footprint. This remained the same in 2021 compared with 2020. Even though they transported more ingredients and products in 2021, they maintained their transportation intensity level through policies and partnerships we put in place around the globe.

Oatly exercised their voice in global forums, such as COP26, to call for action on shifting the current global food system and advancing the plant-based revolution.