Ethical dairy investment fund Southern Pastures, owner of Lewis Road Creamery, has been shortlisted for the World Sustainability Awards.
Southern Pastures is a finalist in the Sustainability Excellence Award.
The shortlist across all 11 categories features 80 best-in-class initiatives, leaders and businesses from around the world.
“We are both proud and humbled to be amongst a line-up of extremely impressive leaders, projects and organisations around the world,” Southern Pastures and Lewis Road Creamery marketing director Lynette Maan said.
“As far as we’re aware, we’re the first company from Aotearoa New Zealand to make the shortlist. That’s down to the authentic story we’re able to share about our on-farm sustainability practices, our rigorous independent audit process, all the way through to the 10 Star butter we have on shelf in NZ, Singapore and the United States.”
Southern Pastures owns more than 6600ha of farmland and produces milk under its own 10 Star Certified Values programme.
The independently audited standard covers grass-fed, free-range, climate-change mitigation, human welfare, animal welfare and sustainability requirements.
Southern Pastures does not, for example, allow PKE to be fed to its cows nor does it permit phosphate from Western Sahara to be used on its farms.
Southern Pastures’ milk produced under the 10 Star standard has been pivotal to the success of the Lewis Road Creamery grass-fed butter sold by Whole Foods and other high-end grocery stores across the US.
Last year’s winners included a mix of smaller innovative organisations and also major global brands such as Hilton, Siemens, Walgreens Boots, Mondelez and Deutsche Post.
Winners will be named on October 13 in a live ceremony at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof, Munich following the World Sustainability Congress 2022.
The congress will connect global leaders as they map out how to reach the big climate goals of 2030.
