Dairy Supply Chain Launches Guide for Sustainability Reporting

The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy announced two new resources to advance the industry’s ability to track, improve and communicate sustainability performance and progress across the supply chain. The resources were developed under the leadership of the U.S. Dairy Sustainability Council as part of the dairy industry’s ongoing effort to provide consumers with nutritious, responsibly produced dairy foods and beverages. The resources build on the dairy industry’s commitment to transparent and credible sustainability reporting and include:

Both resources are available online at USDairy.com/SustainabilityReporting. “Our announcement today showcases another step taken by the dairy industry toward sustainability leadership,” says Barbara O’Brien, president of the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy. “These tools will provide clear, science-based information to the growing number of consumers who want to understand the environmental impact of the products they buy.” The Stewardship and Sustainability Guide for U.S. Dairy identifies the most important indicators for assessing dairy sustainability and communicating results. The indicators are based on scientific life cycle assessment studies commissioned by the Innovation Center and the practical experience of industry members and other experts from nongovernmental, academic and government organizations. The Guide has been through an extensive and collaborative industrywide process of testing, piloting and refining content and incorporates initial input from dairy producers, cooperatives and dairy processors. “This Guide allows dairy farmers, like my family, to voluntarily self-assess our environmental footprint,” says Brian Medeiros, co-owner of Medeiros & Son Dairy and pilot tester of the Stewardship and Sustainability Guide. “For our dairy, we see exceptional value in using the Guide in conjunction with tools like Farm Smart, to help pinpoint opportunities for improvement that make good business sense and help us continue to be good stewards of our natural resources.” A 60-day stakeholder consultation period to obtain feedback that will help ensure the Guide is meaningful, useful and relevant begins on May 15, 2013, and runs through July 14, 2013. Stakeholders are invited to review it online at USDairy.com/SustainabilityGuide. “The Guide provides dairy operations with tools to continuously improve and communicate results. By establishing common measurements and language, the Guide gives retailers and manufacturers the consistent information they need to track their sustainable sourcing and supply chain management goals,” says Kelly Goodejohn, director, ethical sourcing, Starbucks. Learn more about the industry’s commitment to reporting.