Reducing Emissions in Farm Machinery Manufacturing

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

The food system is often scrutinized for its carbon footprint. But reducing the amount of emissions that result from growing our food starts even before the farm. AGCO is a global farm machinery manufacturer that is proactively taking steps to reduce emissions in every aspect of their business. Louisa Parker-Smith is the global head of sustainability for the company.

Parker-Smith… “It's pretty standard set of processes. So firstly, you're looking at your operations and how can you actually conserve resources? How can you operate more efficiently? How can you bring new technology into your operations to reduce your energy usage? How can you look at switching to alternative sources of energy? So renewable or green energy, for example, and it's a continuous evolution and process. How do you invest if you like on an ongoing basis in more efficient equipment?”

All of this is in line with their sustainability commitments as a company.

Parker-Smith… “We have a goal to reduce that emissions intensity by 20% by 2026. So it's a very short timeline. Are we are also looking to reach 60% renewable energy by 2026 across our global manufacturing footprint? So there are the sort of two key goals that we're working on, but we also are spending time to understand our water footprint, how much waste do we generate, so there's a lot of other activities going on in that area as well.”

Parker-Smith says they are also making steps to help their farmer customers reduce emissions as well.