THE COMPANY

Dairy products from the ‘Green Roof of Europe’

Goldsteig Käsereien Bayerwald GmbH is one of Germany’s largest mozzarella producers and one of Europe’s leading exporters of premium dairy products. With production sites in Cham, Tittling, and Stephansposching, the company employs around 700 people. Goldsteig produces specialties such as mozzarella, Emmental, Almdammer, ricotta, mascarpone, and butter. The products are sold under the Goldsteig and Cammino D’Oro brands, among others.

Goldsteig sources milk from around 2,000 dairy farms in the Bavarian and Bohemian Forests — a region also known as the ‘Green Roof of Europe.’ This largely unspoiled landscape and the environmentally conscious farming practices of the producers create ideal conditions for high-quality, pure milk.

THE CHALLENGE

Collecting reliable emissions data from thousands of farms

As climate regulations tighten and expectations from trade partners increase, Goldsteig recognised the need to better understand its upstream emissions — especially Scope 3.1 emissions from raw milk production. But the challenge was significant: around 2,000 supplying farms in Germany and the Czech Republic, two languages, and different local conditions.

Goldsteig therefore sought a solution to enable structured, multilingual, and scalable data collection – one that would motivate farmers to participate, provide professional project management, and be implemented with minimal effort for both farmers and farm technicians.

THE SOLUTION

Scalable farm-level data collection with Root

Goldsteig partnered with Root to carry out structured data collection in Germany and the Czech Republic. In both countries, large-scale data collection projects were implemented in 2023 and 2024 — with comprehensive support from Root.

Each year, Goldsteig collected farm-level data from around 1,500 producers, achieving primary data coverage in Germany of 74% in 2023 and 77% in 2024. In the Czech Republic, the success was equally notable: coverage reached 82% in 2023 and rose to 85% in 2024.

“We never would have believed it was possible to collect such granular data from around 1,500 farms in two countries in just a few weeks — but Root made it happen,” said Eileen Lenz, Sustainability Manager at Goldsteig.

Root supported the project from start to finish — from tailored training materials and communication templates for farmers to weekly progress reports, status overviews for the project team, and direct outreach by phone and email during the final project phase.

Feedback from the farms was consistently positive — particularly regarding the platform’s ease of use and time savings. A key feature was the carryover of data from the previous year, which automatically pre-filled recurring answers and made the annual data collection significantly more efficient.

“Our farmers found Root’s assessment easy to understand and simple to complete. They could upload and extract data directly from existing documents, the questions were clearly formulated, and both the platform and the onboarding materials were available in the local language,” said Lucas Rötzer, Farm Technician at Goldsteig. “Data collection is a recurring process — but Root makes it more efficient each year, for example by carrying over relevant data from the previous year.”

The platform was also a major relief for Goldsteig’s farm technicians. Root’s integrated plausibility checks improved data quality and made time-consuming manual checks unnecessary.

“When you’re collecting data from over a thousand farms, it’s impossible to manually check every single input. Root’s platform automates many of these plausibility checks and flags only those cases that require further review. That saved us an enormous amount of time – while ensuring that we could trust the data,” said Rötzer.

THE IMPACT

A foundation for future-proof climate strategies

With two years of data collection completed, Goldsteig now has reliable data to analyze emissions in its upstream supply chain – not only in Germany, but also in its cross-border supply network. Root supported the results analysis and prepared the data evaluation process for internal presentations. Feedback from management was consistently positive, emphasizing the importance of precise, farm-level primary data for the sustainability strategy.

“The farm-level activity data we collected with Root will be a decisive resource for strategic decisions aimed at making our company more sustainable in the long term,” said Lenz.

Goldsteig has already defined its next steps: calculating an annual Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF), setting its own emissions targets, and providing farmers with specific reduction measures based on the collected data. The goal is clear: to move from data collection to implementation and achieve concrete climate targets. Goldsteig’s success shows how even large dairy processors can efficiently collect farm-level data. With tailored tools, structured guidance, and trust at all levels, complex projects can be made effective with ease.