Can the corona crisis be a driver for green transition?

COVID-19 has placed the whole world in a very serious situation that forces us all to rethink what “normal” is. In these uncertain and unpredictable times, it is important to keep in mind the global 2030 agenda on sustainability. This is our common future, and the readiness for change that this crisis has brought, can be an important lever for our effort to reach the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

All over the world, we have seen examples during the corona crisis on how food companies have been able to quickly change production, create new collaborations and find new alternative applications for existing solutions.

Rapid conversion creates new possibilities

After the COVID-19 shut down of Denmark, several distilleries and beverage producers quickly started to switch their production to the production of hand sanitiser, as a shortage occurred. The juice producer SeiMei temporarily stopped the production of juices to produce hand sanitiser and Carlsberg donated 17,200 litres of the summery drink Somersby wine base to a distillery where it was transformed into alcohol to produce hand sanitiser.

Arla Foods is another Danish company that has found new use of existing solutions with a machine that normally tests quality cheese and yogurt. The test method being used at test centers for COVID-19 in Denmark is being validated on exactly the same machines. Therefore, their machines are now temporarily lent out to the Danish health service where it contributes to increase the testing capacity.

These are examples of how the unique Danish way of collaborating allows the Danish food cluster to be ground-breaking, productive and flexible which is central to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Sustainable development through cross-border cooperation

The transition at food companies all over the world shows a readiness to contribute to challenges. This approach with high level of agility and readiness can become an important driver when we accelerate the collaboration to further development and increase the green transition.

Despite the corona crisis, we are still facing massive challenges to reach the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The many actions through the crisis has shown that businesses are an important part of the solution and that all our capabilities across nations must be rolled out to reach SDGs.