Introducing “The Cowscope”

“What does sustainability mean to you?”, we asked Mikkel Poulsen, who, together with his partner, Marie Linea Østergaard, runs Søtofte Gårdmejeri – a small dairy farm with approximately 50 cows. It’s also the name of the dairy farm that we in Prolog have been proud to have as our main milk supplier for the last five years.

At Søtofte, each cow has its own name, and from the outside it feels like they are an integrated part of the Søtofte family – though with a professional day to day job as the important suppliers of milk for the dairy production. On top of milk, Søtofte also creates wonderful cheeses, which ads even more colours to the already idyllic dairy farm. Marie is by education a dairymaid and oversees the production from when the milk arrives from the fields, while Mikkel is in charge of the wellbeing of the livestock and the surrounding, seemingly endless, stretches of land.

“I don’t know”, Mikkel answered promptly. “Sustainability is many things, and we are all working sustainably in different ways. I have a lot of respect for how other farmers work with the cows. This way just feels right to us.”

We are now standing overlooking the cows, who have gone in “hibernation” in the barn, and until spring patiently must accept to only gaze over their beloved grass fields.

Mikkel shares that they have participated in a recent study which concluded that among the participating farms, Søtofte’s cows enjoyed the most grazing amongst them all. There’s something about that grass…

How do you measure how much grass a cow eats? Quite simply by calculating everything the cows have been eating - but not grass… This data you hold up against a sample of the milks nutritional value - what hasn’t entered the equation from other nutrition sources must be grass (easier than measuring the lengths of grass straws).

How do you then measure sustainability? Less simple, and perhaps it isn’t possible to measure sustainability on a continuum as such. There are simply too many factors involved.

Are grazing cows vs. conventional milk production best for the environment? Grazing dairy cows are supposedly emitting less GHG than conventional dairy cows – but the conventional cow produces much more milk – yielding the total emissions per kg milk around the same. Then again, grazing cows has a higher meat percentage, which, when utilized, lowers the total emissions. For now, it seems like there isn’t a consensus in the scientific realm on whether there is a clear-cut answer to the question: “Grazing or not?”[1,2]. We will get back to this.

The past years, we have spent much time thinking about scopes, scope 1 (our own direct emissions), scope 2 (the energy we purchase for our production) and scope 3 (our supplies, travel, freight, etc.).

We have measured, collected data, made intricate analysis, you name it. Only to find out that this data work didn’t reduce our emissions. 

To combat this, we built for our 2023 Sustainability Report a model we named “The revenue/donation model”. This model suggested that we should invest in carbon capturing based on the size of our company and invest directly in impact rather than letting the money go to waste in consultants and excel sheets. With that in mind, we have limited ourselves to this year only measuring scope 1 and 2 – the areas in which we have the most control and leave scope 3 uncounted for now. We know, however, that our biggest scope 3 emissions stem from the suppliers which we use the most: Green Coffee and Milk. We know that conscious choices in these areas will have the biggest impact on the total emissions in our supply chain. As a challenge, we have therefor decided to zoom in on these crucial supplies when assessing our GHG balance sheet.

This is the reason we this autumn once again journeyed to Søftofte Gårdmejeri. To add the “Scope of the cow” to our Scope 1 and 2 assessments.

What did we learn?

From a pure GHG point of view there isn’t yet a clear answer to weather a dairy production like Søtofte’s is emitting less than bigger conventional farms. It even isn’t clear what sustainability means in this context. But just as with addressing what makes sense in terms of assessing our Scope 1,2 and 3 emissions, we must also consider other factors, like e.g. “What makes sense in terms of keeping animals in the most sensible way?”

Even though it’s hard to define what sustainability is, it at least isn’t only defined as a GHG metric.

And this leads us back to Mikkel’s answer to our question on what sustainability is: “I don’t know.” 

In hindsight, it has become clearer why this question isn’t very easy to answer, and we have started to ponder whether we were even addressing the right source?

And this is something we forgot at our latest visit to Søtofte. We forgot to ask the pundit above them all: the cow itself. To grass or not to grass?

But we already know the answer, and it’s quite obvious: Nothing beats a good grass field.

However, just to be sure, next time we go to Søtofte we will take on the scope of the cow. We will make sure to find Gertrud, Irene or Berit; and we will ask them:

“What does sustainability mean to you?”

2024 GHG Results and future initiatives

2024 Scope 1 & 2

Scope 1: 9.6 Tons GHG

Scope 2: 8.7 Tons GHG

2023 Scope 1 & 2

Scope 1: 4.2 Tons GHG

Scope 2: 7.0 Tons GHG

Our Scope 1 and 2 emissions are calculated internally based on available activity data and standard emission factors. The figures represent estimates and may be adjusted as data quality and methodology develop.

From 2023 to 2024 we have experienced an increase in Scope 1 & 2 emissions from 11.2 to 22.3 Tons, or equivalent to a 100% increase in Scope 1 & 2 emissions. This is explained by a 23% company growth from 2023-2024 as well as by our move away from roasting in a shared roasting facility to now having established our own, where the added GHG expenses to electricity and heating are significant.

As we have chosen to pause calculations on Scope 3, we are not able to calculate our carbon capturing sequestration investment targets based on our Scope 3 emissions. Ideally, we would invest in carbon capturing mirroring the donation/revenue chart we made for our 2023 Sustainability Report, which (based on the model) would put us in the 55^th percentile of companies worldwide in terms of revenue, and which would require an estimated donation of roughly 27.500usd to investment into carbon capturing.

However, an investment of this magnitude is currently not compatible with a sound financial operation, why we intend to collaborate with Klimate, a carbon capturing partner, on carbon capture projects related to our Scope 1 and 2 emissions.

Moving forward it’s our ambition to be able to consecutively invest in carbon capturing sequestering mirroring our Scope 1 + 2 emissions and aspire to meet the investment targets as defined by the donation/revenue model - as ambitious as they might be. Meanwhile, we will evaluate the most effective means of manifesting a positive environmental impact, especially taking conscious decisions of purchases in our supply chain.

Social Goals 2026

We are very pleased to conclude that we have been able to meet many of the expectations we set forth for 2025 in last year’s sustainability report.

This included raising our pension rate, introducing a new and much improved onboarding program for new staff members, updated and improved employee satisfaction survey, and the creation of a framework on social and environmental development on the coffee farms with whom we collaborate.

For 2026 we will have continued ambitions in many of the same areas, and we have set the following concrete goals:

- Raise the pension plan to 5%/1.5% (company/staff) for full time staff members.

- Create one or more fundraising events to help support projects creating important social impact.

- Establish a Prolog Impact unit in the organisation, which moving forward will oversee Prolog Coffee’s efforts in sustainability and impact.

Footnotes:
[1] Greenhouse gas emissions of confinement and pasture-based dairy farms: Implications for mitigation. Mulisa F. Dida,* Sergio C. Garcia, and Luciano A. Gonzalez

[2]Greenhouse gas emissions in milk and dairy product chains improving the carbon footprint of dairy products. Anna Flysjö