Over the past year, our team has dedicated efforts to conduct a series of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies for Oatly, the global leader in oat-based drinks. Through critically reviewed studies, we have compared the environmental footprint of various Oatly products with their cow’s dairy counterparts.
This article gives an overview of the studies and provides access to the accompanying reports.
All studies are set up in a similar way. The functional unit considered is 1 liter of Oatly product and cow’s dairy counterpart at the point of sale, and includes packaging manufacturing and packaging end-of-life. The following Oatly products were studied for specific markets:
We are continuously working with Oatly on evaluating the environmental impacts of products in their portfolio. New reports are expected to be published in the coming year.
For cow’s dairy we have tried to create a representative configuration, in terms of fat content (skimmed, semi-skimmed, whole), heat treatment type (HTST or UHT) and packaging format (e.g. plastic, beverage carton; aseptic/chilled), level of other ingredients (e.g. stabilizers for creams) in each country. The parameters were defined based on market research and literature. For the raw cow milk production the latest data and statistics at a national level were used where possible. In case where national data was incomplete (for example in China), the data collection was supplemented by representative data from countries with a similar farming system.
The foreground data for the Oatly products is based on company-specific data from Oatly.
The studies were performed and critically reviewed according to ISO 14040/14044 and ISO/TS 14071:2014 standards. This means the comparative studies are checked for accuracy and robustness and can be publicly disclosed.
LCA guidelines including the European Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR). The analysis was done for 9 key impact categories from the ReCiPe 2016 impact assessment method that are recommended by the PEF as the most relevant categories for the food and beverages sector. After the first LCA study a 10th impact category was added, namely land occupation (uncharacterized), driven from the findings of the first report.
Cow’s milk was modelled using Blonk’s Dairy Module, which enables lifecycle environmental impacts calculation of dairy systems, which follows published and recognized international calculation guidelines from the European Commission (PEFCR for Dairy Products), The European Environment Agency (Air pollutant emission inventory guidebook) and the IPCC (Emissions from livestock and manure management).
The results show the impact for the different environmental impact categories (climate change, fine particulate matter formation, terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, marine eutrophication, mineral resource scarcity, fossil resource scarcity, water consumption, land use and land occupation), as well as the contribution of individual life cycle stages to the overall footprint for each of these categories. The studies contain several sensitivity and uncertainty analyses to assess the robustness of the results.
The study compares the environmental performance of Oatly Barista (an oat-based drink designed for, but not limited to, use in coffee and tea), to cow’s milk in six sales markets: Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In addition, the study has analysed the main drivers behind the environmental impact of Oatly Barista, and has identified potential opportunities for improvement.
The study compares the environmental performance of several oat drinks with different properties: Oatly “No” Sugars (less sweet taste) and Oatly Oat Drink Whole, Semi and Light (i.e. different fat contents to cow’s milk) in five key sales markets in Europe: Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Finland.
The study compares the environmental performance of Oatly Original (an oat-based drink), to cow’s milk in the United States (US). In addition, the study has analysed the drivers and opportunities linked to the environmental impact of Oatly Original as produced at two production locations and distributed in the US.
The study compares the environmental performance of Oatly Barista (an oat-based drink designed for, but not limited to, use in coffee and tea), to cow’s milk produced in China. In addition, the study has analysed the drivers and opportunities linked to the environmental impact of Oatly Barista.
The study compares the environmental performance of Oatly Creamy Oat (oat-based product for cooking and baking) to dairy cooking cream in the Swedish market.
The study compares the environmental performance of Oatly Creamy Oat (oat-based product for cooking and baking) to dairy cooking cream in the Finnish market.
The study compares the environmental performance of Oatly Barista (an oat-based drink designed for, but not limited to, use in coffee and tea) to cow’s milk in three sales markets: Poland, Ireland and France.
The study compares the environmental performance of chilled Oatly Oat Drink Semi (an oat-based drink with a fat content of 1.5%) to cow’s milk in the Swedish and Finnish markets.
The study compares the environmental performance of Oatly Creamy Oats (oat-based product for cooking and baking) to dairy cooking cream in the German, Dutch, United Kingdom, Danish and Norwegian markets.
The study compares the environmental performance of Oatly Unsweetened and Super Basic Oatmilks to cow’s milk in the United States (US), considering different sourcing scenarios.
The study compares the environmental performance of Oatly Barista (an oat-based drink designed for, but not limited to, use in coffee and tea) to cow’s milk in five sales markets: Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Italy and Spain.
A critically reviewed Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been performed to compare the environmental performance of Oatly Soft Serve to dairy soft serve ice cream, in Europe and the United States.
This short report aims to refresh the operation data of Oatly Barista products sold in the US from 2021 in the Oatly Barista and comparison to cow's milk report to 2023 in this report. The reason behind this refresh is some significant changes in the US operations in the course of those years.
This study is an addendum to the main report “LCA of Oatly Barista and comparison with cow's milk”, which was published by Blonk Consultants on December 7th 2022 (Blonk Consultants, 2022). This addendum should be read in conjunction with the main report.
A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to compare the environmental performance of Oatly Barista to cow’s milk in two sales markets in Europe: Austria and Switzerland. This report is an addendum to the report “LCA of Oatly Barista and comparison with cow's milk”, published on 7 December 2022
Do you have questions about the LCA studies performed for Oatly? Or are you interested in a critically reviewed LCA studie of your product? Get in touch with Elisabeth.