The U.S. Dairy Sustainability Commitment builds on a legacy of caring for the land and the environment while producing and delivering fresh, wholesome foods.
In response to a growing demand for products made responsibly, the Innovation Center has engaged people involved in every step of dairy’s path from local farm to kitchen table. This group of farmers, processors, associations, retailers, academics, scientists, government and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) is working together to decrease the environmental footprint of dairy products, with an initial goal of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for fluid milk by 25 percent by 2020. That’s equivalent to taking 1.25 million passenger cars off the road every year. And we’re not stopping there.
Over the past 60 years, the dairy industry has reduced the carbon footprint of its products by 63 percent1 through production efficiencies, cow nutrition management and other improvements. U.S. dairy continues to build on that history with its Sustainability Commitment. Why? It is what’s best for our environment, our communities, our families — and it makes good business sense for the dairy industry, too. It’s the right thing to do.
It’s not just dairy’s history of innovation that gives us reason to believe we can make the world healthier for future generations. It’s also dairy’s nutrient-rich products — together milk, cheese and yogurt contribute nearly 75 percent of the calcium naturally available in the food supply2 along with high-quality protein and seven other nutrients.
By harnessing the power of U.S. dairy’s collective strengths, we can accelerate adoption of proven best practices, new ideas and new technologies to further reduce the environmental impact of bringing dairy products to the family table.
We’ve made this commitment together. And we will make a difference together.
Around the world, growing environmental concern has inspired millions of people and businesses to act, including the dairy industry. In 2007, in light of unprecedented attention to climate change, the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy named GHG reduction as a top priority for dairy. Since then, we’ve taken these major steps toward an even more sustainable industry:
- Sustainability Council – Knowing that industrywide collaboration is essential for real change, a leadership team of producers, processors, manufacturers and retailers was formed, and joined by dairy experts from academic and nongovernment organizations. The Sustainability Council models a new way of working together pre-competitively to encourage innovation.
- Life Cycle Assessment – To ensure our work is grounded in science, we engaged the Applied Sustainability Center at the University of Arkansas to conduct a life cycle assessment (LCA): a detailed review of GHG emission sources across the fluid milk value chain. This will be the most comprehensive analysis ever undertaken, providing a credible baseline to measure our progress.
- Sustainability Summit – The inaugural Sustainability Summit in June 2008 tapped into the ingenuity and expertise of dairy stakeholders from across the country. More than 250 participants worked together to identify short-, medium- and long-term opportunities to reduce GHG emissions and increase business value across the dairy value chain. They crafted a vision: We commit to being leaders in sustainability, ensuring the health and well-being of our planet, communities, consumers and the industry.
The U.S. Dairy Roadmap to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Increase Business Value – Following the Summit, teams of volunteers took a hard look at which opportunities had the most potential. Participants developed thorough business cases for the most promising projects. These became part of the Roadmap, the path the industry will take to reach its goal of 25 percent reduction in GHG emissions by 2020. This portfolio of projects spans the value chain, from farm to retail. When fully implemented it will get us nearly halfway to the goal.
Our commitment now is to the ongoing effort to implement the project plans identified in the GHG Roadmap. Meanwhile, we are identifying and exploring other opportunities for dairy to make a difference through our unified commitment to healthy people, healthy products and a healthy Earth.
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