24 March 2009

1 minute read

Europe

Using a proprietary ‘benchmarking tool’, Dairy UK members will be able to record their performance on key environmental indicators and compare it with their peers. Information on energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, packaging and waste will all be captured.

As well as helping individual processing sites to improve, the tool will allow Dairy UK to measure the sector’s progress towards targets set out in the Milk Roadmap. Anonymous data collected through the initiative will feed into a new Annual Sustainability Report, due to be published for the first time this summer.

Early indications already suggest that dairy companies are beating many of their Roadmap targets. They are cutting waste sent to landfill faster than expected, and using more recycled plastic in their milk bottles.

Environment Manager Fergus McReynolds said: “Thanks to work such as the Milk Roadmap, the UK dairy industry is already producing some of the greenest milk in Europe. A recent study found the sector was responsible for less than 3 per cent of UK greenhouse gas emissions.

“This launch should help companies to become more efficient and identify areas where individual sites can improve their environmental performance. Benchmarking has the power to drive major change across the dairy industry, to the benefit of the environment and the bottom line.”

TheCattleSite News Desk