We are proud to have obtained Origin Green Gold Membership for 2025. Gold Membership is the highest form of membership a company can attain in any given year.
This award is testament to the hard work and dedication of many team members who have contributed with enthusiasm to the underlying actions taken on behalf of all of us, and in writing the annual Origin Green report, which details the progress made on our Plan Four Zero Sustainability Strategy.
Gill Higgins, Group Head of Sustainability: “As a founding member of Origin Green, we are delighted to have been awarded Gold Membership for 2025. This achievement has been made possible through the dedication and efforts of our people, suppliers and customers, and we would like to thank each of them for their contributions.”
Dawn Meats has been actively involved in the Origin Green programme since its inception in 2012. The company sources 96% of its cattle and sheep from members of Bord Bia’s Sustainable Beef and Lamb Assurance Scheme and has over 20,000 farmer suppliers in Ireland. Dawn Meats work in partnership with key stakeholders to advance the sustainability of the livestock sector.
Launched in 2012, Origin Green is the national sustainability programme for the Irish food and drink industry. It is the only sustainability programme in the world which operates on a national scale, uniting government, the private sector and food and drink producers, through Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board. Since the inception of Origin Green, over 137,000 carbon assessments have been completed on Irish beef and dairy farms, where Dawn Meats sources livestock for processing. These audits have provided over 25 million data points on the performance of Irish farms in relation to sustainable practices.
As one of the first verified members of Origin Green we have progressively submitted more ambitious annual Origin Green targets since our earliest plan in 2012. Our Plan Four Zero makes many commitments including energy, water, emissions, waste, raw material sourcing, biodiversity, people and community.
Our Progress:
In 2024, Dawn Meats advanced its sustainable packaging strategy, increasing the percentage of MAP trays using mono plastic with glue from 88% in 2023 to 92%, surpassing its milestone target by 22%. While some tray formats remain unchanged due to complex designs, Dawn Meats continues to collaborate with suppliers and internal teams to explore further opportunities for conversion. The company remains focused on increasing the overall percentage of trays using the mono with glue solution, despite technical limitations in certain formats.
Further progress was made in reducing non-recyclable components, with the percentage of product lines in padded MAP trays rising from 79% in 2023 to 91%, exceeding the milestone of 83%. This shift enabled the removal of an estimated 1.9 tonnes of absorbent pads from the supply chain, allowing previously unrecyclable trays to be recycled.
Dawn Meats also maintained its high standard in sustainable sourcing, with 98% of cardboard packaging FSC-certified in 2024, well above the milestone of 85%. This achievement was sustained despite the acquisition of Kildare Chilling, which introduced new suppliers into the group. The company is actively working with these suppliers to support their transition to FSC certification.
The average recycled content of rigid plastic trays was maintained at 80%, meeting the company’s milestone target. Dawn Meats continues to monitor the availability of high-quality recycled material, recognising the challenges posed by increased demand.
Dawn Meats is committed to sustainability and fully supports the collaborative nature of the Origin Green programme. Through industry working together, from farm to fork, we are able to provide our customers and their customers in turn, with sustainable, healthy & high-quality meat products. This collaborative work is exemplified at our Newford Farm. Dawn Meats and Teagasc, supported by McDonald’s, have established a standalone suckler herd at Newford, Athenry, Co Galway to demonstrate best practice in sustainable suckler beef production. The herd is run on a fully commercial basis and demonstrates the potential of a moderately large suckler beef farm to generate a viable family farm income when operated to the highest level of technical efficiency and best practice. The farm acts as a shop window for the technologies that drive profitability in a suckler herd and operates in a completely transparent manner, with all measurements and data available to visiting groups, other interested parties and the farming public.
In addition to our supply chain work, we continue to invest internally in our people, plant, processes and technology. Through our membership of Origin Green and many complementary CSR initiatives Dawn Meats is fully committed to the goal of being ‘Europe’s most sustainable meat company’.
For more detail about our sustainability commitments and our Plan Four Zero, go to: www.planfourzero.com
Find out more about the Origin Green National Sustainability Programme
