Jymy ice cream – your local and organic choice
Jymy has been a trailblazer right from the start in the world of ice cream delicacies. We want to make the best ice cream there is, using the purest ingredients, responsibly and transparently. Jymy was the first to start making organic ice creams in Finland in 2014.
They were followed by our vegan, organic ice creams and low-calorie Vapaus (“Freedom”) ice creams. In 2021, we followed in the same trail and launched a carbon-negative ice cream flavours – the first in Finland. In 2022, all Jymy ice creams will be carbon-negative.
Locally sourced ingredients and domestic production
When it comes to ingredients, less is more means fewer middlemen and more traceability.
The milk for Jymy ice creams comes from a local farm, and we even know the cows by name. We also know what has been grown on the fields during the past 25 years where the cows graze. All our key ingredients – cream, berries and eggs – are always Finnish, and very often local. In vegan ice creams we use Finnish broad beans and gluten-free oats. We are constantly looking for and testing new Finnish ingredients.
We cannot obtain all our ingredients locally, but high-quality and responsible suppliers can also be found for more exotic ingredients. For example, we use chocolates by Original Beans in our ice creams. Cru Virunga dark chocolate comes from Virunga, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Proceeds from the sale of the chocolate are used for the protection of endangered mountain gorillas and the planting of new trees, thereby contributing to the area’s social wellbeing and sustainable development. Learn more about Original Beans at https://originalbeans.com/cru-virunga-congo.
We also avoid any middlemen in the production of the ingredients. Our passionate ice cream makers in the municipality of Aura in southwest Finland handle the production from start to finish. We make our own jams, scrape the vanilla pods, make and crumble the dough, brown the butter and cook the caramel in our own production facilities.
By doing so we cherish and ensure that the food is clean and safe, also creating jobs in Aura and making sure that the flavour is exactly what we want it to be.
Organic guarantees pure enjoyment
Organic is an international quality system for food production. It combines the best practices in terms of the environment and the climate, rich biodiversity, preservation of natural resources, human welfare and foods made using natural ingredients and natural methods. It meets the increasing demand for organic products and promotes rural development.
Organic means, among other things:
Optimal conditions for farm animals.
No genetic modification, no herbicides, no chemical fertilisers, no synthetic preservatives or thickening agents, no artificial sweeteners or colours or flavour enhancers.
Organic production is monitored throughout the production chain, all the way to the shop shelves.
Organic produce is good for the environment, animals, farmers, society at large and obviously you, eating it. Finnish organic products are also very domestic, because only a few of the ingredients are imported.
Climate positivity
Jymy is the first company in Finland and Scandinavia to make carbon negative ice cream.
This has been an important step on our sustainable development journey.
We have been working with Envitecpolis and Nordic Offset. We aim to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in both our operations and our supply chains in line with the United Nations goals for limiting global warming to 1.5 °C. In addition, we remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than what our remaining carbon footprint is through carefully chosen and certified carbon removal projects, such as by planting forests.
Our purpose
Jymy exists to bring joy to people in the form of ice cream, and we want to do it responsibly, taking into account our planet and the climate change that is threatening it. We try to do a better job of it every day.
This is why we make bold changes to ensure we hand over to the next generations will be a beautiful, diverse and vibrant planet.
Our environment
Jymy ice cream is made in the countryside in the beautiful Aura river valley, in the southwest of Finland. We understand that although we may be a small business, we are nevertheless part of a global ecosystem and we want our environmental impacts to be positive.
Jymy’s carbon evaluation
A thorough analysis by Envitecpolis, a research institute for the food industry, included an estimate that Jymy’s carbon footprint will be about 280 tonnes of CO2e in 2022.
This consists of:
1: Direct emissions from our operations
2: Indirect emissions caused by production of the energy we use
3: Upstream emissions: Indirect emissions from our supply chain. This includes emissions by farms producing our ingredients, and the refining, packaging and transportation to us.
Our plan
1. Our plan to reduce CO2 emissions
At Jymy, our goal for carbon dioxide reduction is to reduce carbon intensity by another 25 per cent by 2030.
This means that Jymy will use even more plant-based products, currently already accounting for 40 per cent of Jymy ice creams. We will obviously continue to use renewable energy and will look into more environmentally friendly packaging – just to mention a few examples. Our ingredients, packaging materials and related logistics account for more than 90 per cent of our carbon footprint, so that is where we have room for improvement.
We cooperate with the farmers in our supply chain to find out how land can be managed better for the benefit of everyone. Our close connection to primary production helps us to understand how the environmental impacts of agriculture can be improved and measured.
The Venna organic farm, which delivers milk straight to our factory, is working for the benefit of the landscape, habitat and biodiversity in a large scale. Thanks to the farm’s carbon footprint calculations, we have a better idea how emissions can be further reduced.
Even before the ice cream factory was established, the Venna organic farm has been working systematically for 20 years to be more environmentally friendly and to improve the condition of the farm animals.
– no fossil fertilisers are used; instead growth is based on nitrogen-fixing plant and recycled fertilisers
– fossil fuels are not used to dry grain
– fields have maximal plant cover
– solar power units, and any purchased electricity is CO2-free
– another significant point is that feed is not produced on peatland.
Thanks to the above, we have calculations by an external party (Envitecpolis) stating that the carbon footprint of milk from the Venna farm is 10 per cent lower than the national average, and 60 per cent lower than the international average.
This calculation does not include the farm’s carbon dioxide sequestration, which is carried out extensively but not included in the calculation because the measurement methods are not accurate enough.
However, the fact that the local carbon-poor land that was previously used for just grain crops has been included in crop rotation – involving organic grass, grain and legumes – has visibly and also measurably increased organic matter, that is, carbon, in the fields.
Once the measurement methods become established, we will be able to say that, already at this point, the carbon footprint of the milk we used were 25 per cent lower than the national and 70 per cent lower than the international average.
This will also pave Finland’s way towards carbon neutrality.
2. Our decarbonisation plan
As to the emissions that we currently cannot reduce, we remove 10 per cent more carbon from the atmosphere than we release into it. We do this by investing in nature-based solutions through projects that protect the environment for future generations, and through carbon storage. We have found partners that have solid expertise in emission reductions, such as Nordic Offset, able to offer independently accredited carbon removal projects.
3. Promoting change in our industry
Our goal is to change our industry. It’s a big goal for a small company in Aura, but we know that what pioneers do has an effect on consumer habits and thereby on large brands and companies. We hope that our example will encourage others to do the same, and the sooner the better.
Finally
During the past few years, we have become more aware of our impact on the environment. We thought we were doing enough, but now we understand that we can do more. This is new territory to Jymy, because we are the first Finnish company making carbon-negative ice cream. We do not want to sit on our hands, because if everyone expects someone else to take the initiative, we will slide towards catastrophe together. We want to challenge ourselves, our customers and the entire industry to make sure that we hand over the planet in the best possible condition to the future generations. We are not perfect, so must improve steadily, heading persistently towards our goals.
Together we can make it.