Marketing & Communications

Oatly Raises Bar with New Nature, People, Nutrition Commitments

In its new Sustainability Plan, Oatly adopts a more holistic approach to climate impact — including measuring and reporting on its contribution to societal net zero.

Published 4 weeks ago | About a 4 minute read

Image: Oatly's latest UK campaign challenged doubters to a blind taste test | Oatly

Oatly Group AB, the world’s original and largest oat drink company, has published its updated Global Sustainability Plan — laying out its plans for reducing climate emissions; contributing to societal net zero; and broadening its impact to include commitments to protecting nature, nutritious diets and empowering people to help futureproof the food system.

Setting itself apart from the start with its cheeky brand voice, Oatly has been a pioneer in regenerative agriculture and climate-labeled products, and an outspoken critic of the dairy industry — in 2023, the company challenged “Big Dairy” companies to join Oatly in sharing data about their climate footprint. In that same spirit of transparency, the company also created a separate website, FckOatly.com, dedicated to its shortcomings and controversies.

Now, with the commitments outlined in its updated Sustainability Plan, Oatly becomes the first food and drink company to qualify as a Climate Solutions Company, according to the Exponential Roadmap Initiative (ERI) framework. This qualification acknowledges the positive impact Oatly has when converting consumers away from cow’s dairy consumption, reducing their climate impact.

“As we launch our most comprehensive Sustainability Plan to date, we’re proud to be recognized as the first food and drink ‘Climate Solutions Company’ for our role in transforming the broken food system,” says Oatly CEO Jean-Christophe Flatin. “It’s a responsibility we don’t take lightly. Our Plan acknowledges the deep interconnections between climate, nature, people and nutrition — and we’re calling on experts from these fields to work with us and pioneer the way forward. We do not have all the answers, and we’re committed to working with like-minded partners to keep us on track, as well as share our learnings along the way.”

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Oatly’s new plan sets a new bar for the kinds of sustainability ambitions needed to meaningfully address global climate change. “Societal net zero,” for example, is an unfamiliar term (and goal) that will hopefully gain traction and prompt companies to expand the scope of their sustainability strategies far beyond their own value chains.

As Oatly explains, “Often, net-zero goals refer to a company balancing its climate emissions with permanent climate removals. Societal net zero goes beyond any one company and looks at the bigger picture: our collective emissions and removals as a society. For example, offering climate-solution products as an alternative to higher-emitting products is an important way to reduce society’s emissions.”

As well as updating its greenhouse gas (GHG)-reduction targets across Scopes 1, 2 and 3, Oatly has also become the first company to trial a new “Spheres of Influence” model of carbon accounting that incentivizes and rewards companies for acting beyond their value chains to support global decarbonization. Developed by Futerra and Oxford Net Zero, the model enables Oatly to measure and report on its climate impact outside of its direct value chain — its contribution to societal net zero.

“Oatly gets it. Real climate leadership means going beyond your own carbon footprint to shift our societal emission. We reach net zero collectively or not at all,” says Solitaire Townsend, Chief Solutionist at Futerra. “By testing Futerra and Oxford Net Zero’s pioneering ‘Spheres of Influence’ concept, Oatly is proving what business can do when it acts not just as a company but as a culture-shaping force.”

As part of its plan, Oatly has updated its emissions-reduction targets, accompanied by published pathways and a Climate Transition Plan due to be published by the end of this year. Working with international climate consultancy EcoAct, Oatly has set targets aligned to the ERI climate solutions framework and global “Carbon Law” concept in support of achieving the Paris Agreement, including committing to:

contributing to societal net zero;
reducing GHG emissions by 89 percent in 2050;
counterbalancing remaining residual emissions with durable removals from 2050 onwards; and
updating interim targets to achieve a 40 percent reduction in emissions by 2030 and 70 percent by 2040.

“To shift the global economy, we must scale climate solutions exponentially. Companies delivering these solutions should be recognized for their low-emission alternatives to conventional products — helping shift industries, societies and countries onto a science-aligned path to net zero,” says ERI CEO Johan Falk. “We are proud to recognize Oatly as a climate solutions company in the Exponential Roadmap Initiative, and we applaud their willingness to lead boldly when it matters most.”