Success story: How Interfood built its carbon programme

About two years into building its sustainability programme, Interfood Global had a clear view of what it was doing well. What it did not yet have was a complete picture of its emissions across all three scopes.

That changed through a structured collaboration with Nexio Projects across three successive projects, resulting in a complete, audit ready GHG inventory that now supports both internal strategy and external requirements.

A trading company with a supply-chain-scale footprint

Interfood is a Dutch dairy commodity trader. With 14 offices spanning six continents, the company supplies dairy ingredients for the world’s largest food and beverage manufacturers. Its portfolio spans skimmed milk powder, cream, cheese, liquid dairy and more, traded across global markets.

Interfood does not manufacture products itself. The company connects supply and demand in global dairy markets. As a result, its carbon footprint is not primarily found within its own operations, but across the production and movement of the products it trades. “The conversation shifted,” says Iris Budie, Sustainability Program Manager at Interfood Global, “from we need to do something about Scope 1 and 2′ to we need to do something about Scope 3, because Scope 1 and 2 are negligible compared to the impact of our value chain.” As publicly reported in Interfood’s 2025 Integrated Report, the company’s total carbon footprint is nearly 9 million tCO2e. Their Scope 1 and 2 – offices, vehicles, energy – is merely 345 tCO2e and the rest lives in the supply chain.

A proactive call, not a regulatory push

“When we started, the entire drive was intrinsic,” Iris Budie reflects. “Interfood has already undertaken a wide range of initiatives related to non-financial impact, and we wanted to better understand the impact of those efforts.”
As the sustainability function matured, the need for that understanding grew. For a company facilitating over one million tonnes of dairy trade annually, gaining visibility into its environmental impact was both a strategic priority and a significant challenge.

Three years, three projects

The carbon work built one step at a time. Interfood first focused on emissions within its sphere of influence: a Scope 1, 2 and partial Scope 3 Carbon Footprint Assessment for the 2024 reference year. Direct emissions, owned vehicles, electricity, heating, business travel and commuting. Nexio’s added value extended to the auditing process. “The team supported us in the conversations with the auditing team” Iris Budie says, “their structured process and expertise helped us realise third-party verification”. A clean, audited baseline across all 14 entities, aligned with the GHG Protocol and ISO 14064.

The separate Scope 3 inventory followed. That is where the complexity of a global trading model becomes most apparent. Unlike a manufacturer, there is no production process to benchmark. The footprint is embedded in what is sourced, sold and transported across continents. For Interfood, that implied defining assumptions entity by entity: which mode of freight, which routing, what production process, what refrigeration conditions, what country of origin, and so on.
Nexio Projects’ approach was practical and structured. “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good,” says Iris Budie. “The goal is not to have perfect insights everywhere. It’s to have insights good enough to steer strategy. And for that, 80% confidence is enough to act.” Building that simplicity into the process took close collaboration. “They were really able to make it manageable,” Iris Budie says of the Nexio Projects team. “The team was able to translate a highly complex reality into a practical and accessible methodology. By focusing on a limited number of key assumptions, they created an approach that delivers meaningful insights without unnecessary complexity.”

The third phase extended the full consolidated inventory to 2025, across all three
scopes. Data collection evolved from Excel files sent by email to
SharePoint live files, enabling more efficient collaboration between entities. Nexio Projects reviewed data in parallel as each of the 14 offices submitted, keeping the cycle moving. The process became increasingly embedded in Interfood’s operations. This year, someone from one of the offices proactively suggested a process improvement. “That,” says Iris, “is when you know it’s starting to live.”

“Pragmatic, efficient, and supportive. Rather than simply providing a list of data requests, the Nexio team guided us through the process, helping us navigate complexity with confidence. We didn’t just receive answers, but also the underlying rationale, enabling us to build internal knowledge and become more self-sufficient over time.”

Iris Budie, Sustainability Program Manager, Interfood Global

What the data enabled

Understanding the total footprint was a valuable starting point. Besides highlighting the largest source of emissions, the granular product level breakdown enabled more targeted action and sharpened the quality of supplier and customer conversations. Instead of broad sustainability terms, the team now walks in with specific data about which products, which origins and which reduction pathways are most material.

The commercial implications have been meaningful. Emissions transparency helps position Interfood as a trusted partner for customers and suppliers advancing their sustainability ambitions, strengthening long-term relationships. “With the majority of our largest customers pursuing net zero commitments, taking a proactive role in navigating carbon emissions is emerging as an important part of the value we bring as supply chain partner“.

As customer expectations evolve from corporate carbon footprints to product carbon footprints, the pressure for primary supplier data will only grow. Looking ahead, Interfood is focused on deepening data quality and expanding supplier engagement.

As a next step in its carbon accounting, the team is developing tailored emission factors from primary supplier data. Today, around half of targeted strategic suppliers share emission data. For those that are earlier in their sustainability journey, Interfood is exploring how it can support and accelerate progress.

What this means for trading and logistics companies

For sustainability teams at trading, distribution or logistics companies, the challenge is familiar. Emissions are not primarily where the energy bills are. They sit in what is sourced, moved and traded across the value chain. For a commodity trader, that reality is particularly clear.

Building clarity on that picture is both good reporting practice and a strategic asset. It changes which suppliers you prioritise, which customers you can genuinely serve in the long term, and what your sustainability programme is actually for.

Iris Budie’s advice to any team at an earlier stage: “The key is to get started and avoid setting the bar too high. The objective is not to achieve perfect insight, but to generate the understanding needed to drive informed decision-making.”

The data improves with each reporting cycle. Taking that first measurement is what makes the rest possible.

Want to take sustainability from compliance to competitive advantage? Talk to us. nexioprojects.com/contact/