In the fall of 2017, the inaugural meeting of the U.S dairy Processor Working Group took place with nearly 30 participants from companies coming together to identify and collaboratively address opportunities to support industry progress.

The group is part of the Dairy Sustainability Alliance®, which engages stakeholders with the checkoff-founded Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy. They gathered to better understand ways to measure, improve and report their plant-level environmental footprint (i.e., water use efficiency and quality, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions).

There have been seven productive years since that first gathering, and the group now consists of more than 70 representatives from 35-plus companies who engage in a pre-competitive, peer-to-peer environment where they share and learn from each other.

Their focus has evolved to include collaborative efforts that support the industry’s 2050 environmental stewardship goals (field, dairy farm, and processor levels of the supply chain) to:

• Achieve greenhouse gas (GHG) neutrality

• Optimize water use while maximizing recycling

• Improve water quality by optimizing utilization of manure and nutrients

The Processor Working Group created a suite of resources to help companies on their sustainability journey, beginning with the Dairy Processor Handbook. This resource provides insight and guidance that processors can use to assess their operation’s sustainability, highlight responsible management practices, and demonstrate their company’s and the industry’s commitment to continuous improvement.

The handbook and its metrics were built in conjunction with the U.S. Dairy Stewardship Commitment, which is a voluntary, stakeholder-aligned initiative to advance sustainability leadership across the dairy community. The Commitment has been adopted by 43 companies representing over 77% of U.S. milk production.

Other tools the Processor Working Group has created to date include:

• Dairy Processor Waste Audit Guidance: provides guidance on conducting a waste audit for identifying and managing waste streams and working toward achieving zero waste.

• Dairy Processing Water Definitions and Reuse Opportunities: a compilation of common terms and definitions translated into a dairy processing context, providing a common vernacular for the industry to approach water stewardship.

• Dairy Processor GHG Reduction Opportunities Guidance: details strategies, practices, technologies and supporting resources for dairy processors to lower their GHG emissions footprint.

Another analysis in development that processors – and the industry at large – will find very useful is an updated life cycle assessment (LCA). Two LCA-focused projects are being led through the Innovation Center with one examining processing and the other focusing on field and farm. The U.S. dairy industry was the first in the food and agricultural sector to conduct a full LCA on a national scale in 2008. The new LCAs will establish an updated 2020 baseline that will reflect changes to science, methods, metrics and reporting guidelines that have occurred in the last 16 years.

The processor-level LCA estimates the carbon footprint for production of 33 different dairy products, a more comprehensive examination than 2008. The updated LCA methods are cutting edge and consistent with global GHG accounting and reporting frameworks, such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), International Dairy Federation (IDF) and GHG Protocol. This approach will elevate U.S. dairy’s reputation as a credible part of global sustainable food systems.

The goal is to have these analyses published in a scientific journal next year. Results will be combined to span from cradle-to-processor gate, with the following objectives:

• Help the U.S. dairy industry align on methods, metrics and terminology for estimating GHG emissions.

• Enable companies to compare their individual footprint to a national average.

• Understand contributions to the dairy industry’s GHG footprint (on a national level) and gain insight into potential mitigation strategies, practices and technologies.

• Set the baseline for modeling toward the 2050 GHG neutrality goal.

• Help identify areas for future research and innovation.

It’s well understood the vital role that an industry’s sustainability commitments and practices have on today’s consumer, who considers these factors in the grocery store. And these aren’t just expectations occurring in the U.S.; these also are evident in our valued export markets where U.S.-produced dairy has a home thanks to its longtime commitment to sustainable production, quality and innovation.

Thankfully, leaders such as members of the Processor Working Group have followed a “better together” mantra that serves everyone in the industry and enables collaborative action that results in shared benefits.

The group is proof that all boats can rise when companies come together for the greater good.