Green Queen: How Sustainable is Animal-Free Dairy? We Compare Precision Fermentation LCAs

The Boundless environmental impact report for De Novo Foodlabs was featured on Green Queen. The article compares the results of our scientifically rigorous process to those of another precision fermentation company.

“Boundless found that De Novo’s animal-free protein would have a GHG footprint of 169kg of CO2e, which is over 99.9% lower than conventional lactoferrin. Fermentation-derived biogenic CO2 emissions are responsible for 34.6% of its total GHG footprint, while production of sugar alcohol accounts for 13.5%.

The latter is also responsible for 87.5% of NanoFerrin’s land use footprint of 16.3 sq m years per kg of protein – also over 99.9% less than traditional lactoferrin. This figure carries over to water use as well, with De Novo Foodlabs stating it uses 75.8 litres of water per kg of its precision-fermented dairy protein.

The company claims that replacing animal-derived lactoferrin with its NanoFerrin could reduce emissions by 1,450 megatonnes of CO2e from 2024-30 – equivalent to removing 46 million gasoline-powered cars from roads in that period.”