Carbon Solutions

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In 2021, amid growing global concern and calls for accelerated climate action, we created a dedicated Carbon Solutions Platform to spearhead our global decarbonization trajectory, in line with our commitment to sustainable business.

As an outcome of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, 136 countries have committed to net zero emissions by 2050. Some 20% of the world’s 2,000 largest corporates, including many multinationals in the food and agriculture sector have also made net zero commitments.

In this context, LDC set up its new Carbon Solutions Platform in 2021, to drive forward our decarbonization journey through the use of renewable energies, low carbon fuels, energy efficiency enhancements and investments in nature-based solutions across our supply chains, supported by participation in global carbon credits markets.

To ensure that carbon best-practice becomes an integral part of doing business, as well as a value driver and competitive advantage for LDC, our new Carbon Solution Platform is working with all business areas across LDC, and in consultation with external climate experts, to:

Lead LDC’s greenhouse gas corporate inventory and science-based target setting for scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon emissions.
Build a carbon reduction project portfolio within and beyond LDC’s operations, as a source of high-quality carbon credits and removals to help meet our own and our customers’ carbon targets.
Support our business lines to decarbonize value chains and develop low carbon intensity products and services for customers.

Portfolio Highlights

Since its creation in September 2021, our Carbon Solutions team has been building up an extensive portfolio of carbon reduction and removal projects spanning:

Regenerative agriculture: collaborating with farmers to incentivize farming practices that lead to enhanced soil organic carbon and/or reduction of nitrous oxide emissions.
Reduced emissions from deforestation & degradation (REDD): forest conservation and protection projects designed to reduce emissions resulting from deforestation or degradation.
Reforestation and afforestation: tree-planting and cultivation activities that generate carbon removals, including agroforestry.
Blue carbon: carbon avoidance and removal in coastal and marine ecosystems, such as mangroves, seagrass and sea marshes.
Community projects: initiatives to reduce emissions while benefitting local communities in developing countries, such as the provision of improved cooking stoves, safe water devices that reduce use of non-renewable biomass and LED lighting to replace kerosene devices.

Technology-driven removals: carbon removals generated by technology enhancements at our industrial assets, such as carbon capture and storage at LDC’s ethanol plants.
Reduced fuel consumption in shipping through advanced paint coatings, wind-assisted technology or a switch to green fuels such as biofuels on vessels chartered by LDC or customers.
Methane avoidance & reuse: avoidance of emissions from enteric fermentation or organic waste, and methane recovery and use for electricity or heat.
Renewable energy: emissions reductions from replacement of fossil-based electricity or heat sources with renewable sources such as wind, solar, geothermal and small-scale run-of-river hydro.

Collaboration for Decarbonization

Collaboration is central not only to our own decarbonization journey, but to the many sustainability challenges facing our industry, which can only be addressed if all value chain participants are united in their efforts.

Indonesia: Sumatra Merang Peatland Project with Ecosphere+ Limited

LDC purchased carbon credits from Ecosphere+ Limited in relation to the Sumatra Merang Peatland Project, which aims to restore over 22,934 hectares of peatland rainforest in Indonesia’s Merang biodiversity zone, one of the largest and deepest peat swamp areas in South Sumatra.

Through activities such as peatland rewetting, forest protection from illegal logging and fire prevention, the project has reduced and sequestered 2.6 million tons of CO₂ emissions to date.

In addition to its beneficial climate impact, the project brings important social benefits by working with surrounding villages through a community development fund, providing support to fishermen and creating 103 jobs in areas such as dam construction and forest patrols.

US: Carbon Sequestration and Storage with Summit Carbon Solutions

Signed in 2021, this carbon sequestration and storage project will capture CO₂ from two LDC ethanol production facilities in Nebraska and sequester it underground on a permanent basis.

Through the annual capture and storage of over 10 million tons of CO₂ from several ethanol plants and industrial facilities in the US, the project will reduce the carbon footprint of US corn-based ethanol activities, making locally produced ethanol more competitively priced in comparison to foreign imported sugarcane-based ethanol, while improving the viability of ethanol as a fuel source.

The project will also create thousands of jobs during construction, and hundreds once operations begin.

Kenya: Improved Cookstoves Programme with BioLite

LDC purchased carbon credits from this project to distribute to Kenyan households new BioLite HomeStoves and several models of super-efficient charcoal stoves that cut toxic indoor pollutant emissions by 90% and reduce wood fuel use by 50%.

BioLite’s innovative technology also provides users with enough reliable, on-demand electricity in a day’s cooking to fully charge a mobile phone or generate an evening’s worth of bright LED light, replacing kerosene-fired lights.

Organized in small-scale programs replicated across the country, the project has distributed these affordable stoves to approximately 14,000 households, reducing the consumption of wood and charcoal, and avoiding on average the equivalent of 45,000 tons of CO₂ emissions per year for each program.