Recognizing Dairy’s Carbon Footprint
Last week the dairy industry made an impressive commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at least 25 percent by the year 2020. The International Dairy Foods Association’s, Peggy Armstrong, said in Wednesday’s DairyLine that “Recognizing the growing focus on dairy’s carbon footprint, the Center brought together leaders from across the dairy value chain to identify ways to reduce energy use, increase efficiency and help the industry tap into new sources of income.”
Listen to Wednesday’s DairyLine Program:
She reported that 12 projects were announced that alone have the potential to create at least $238 million in business value and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3.2 million metric tons, a reduction equal to approximately 4.5 billion kilowatts of electricity.
Extensive research done through the Innovation Center clearly shows that energy and resource efficiency improvements can help producers and processors improve profitability. It also shows that greenhouse gas reduction can accelerate technology innovations that increase dairy productivity.
Several of the projects are aimed specifically at dairy processing. One will increase the adoption of energy-efficiency best practices in milk processing plants. Another will demonstrate the commercial viability of non-thermal ultra-violet processing technology as an alternative method for producing high-quality, safe milk products with significantly less energy. And a third will review clean-in-place processes, an energy-intensive aspect of milk processing, and determine solutions for reducing both costs and greenhouse gas emissions.
Why take on this commitment now? Because consumer’s concerns about green house gas emissions are threatening dairy consumption. A growing number of consumers are factoring in “carbon footprint” along with cost, quality and health benefits in the products they buy.
Some advocates are touting “low-carbon” diets and steering customers away from meat and dairy choices, while a number of retailers are considering ways to evaluate suppliers on their greenhouse reduction efforts. And we cannot allow our competitors in the beverage market are positioning themselves as better environmental alternatives to milk.
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