Reducing Environmental Impact
Tackling climate change
We're committed to addressing climate change and caring for natural resources. That means protecting water, biodiversity and soil, while reducing waste and cutting emissions wherever we can.
Through the Australian Dairy Industry Sustainability Framework, we are committed to achieve the following goals:
- Improve land management: protect waterways, implement action plans for nutrient, soil, plant and animal biodiversity and commit to net zero deforestation.
- Increase water use efficiency: improve water productivity, monitor consumption, use recycled water and develop water security plans.
- Reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity: increase vegetation, use energy more efficiently, reduce nitrous oxide emissions and explore alternative forages.
- Reduce waste: ensure all packaging is recyclable, compostable or reusable.
Learn more about the initiatives that are driving change in nutrient and land management, reducing ghg emissions intensity and waste and how dairy farmers and manufacturers are using water more efficiently.
Reducing emissions
Learn more about climate change and the dairy initiatives helping to drive down emissions.
Dairy farmer uses multi-species, legumes and charcoal to combat climate change
Dairy farmer David Vonhoff shares how he’s tackling climate change on his 1500-acre farm in Queensland’s Darling Downs region.
Read the ABC article: Dairy farmer uses multi-species, legumes and charcoal to combat climate change
Dairy Australia's Climate Change Strategy
Dairy Australia is committed to playing its part in ensuring a healthy climate through a new Climate Change Strategy 2020-25, released in 2020.
Australian dairy will work on-farm, in manufacturing and in distribution to find and enable smart, sustainable and cost-effective solutions to meet dairy farmer's adaptation challenges, as well as industry targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Dairy in a low emissions diet
CSIRO researchers assessed the nutritional quality of Australians diets against dietary impact on emissions and found that high-quality, low-emissions diets typically featured dairy as a key component.
Should I eat more or less dairy if I want a low emission diet?
Industry progress on emissions reduction
Most Australian dairy farmers have implemented practices on their farms to reduce or offset their GHG emissions and dairy manufacturers have reduced their GHG emissions intensity by 25% since 2010/11.
You can explore more in the latest Australian Dairy Industry Sustainability Report.
Reducing emissions in manufacturing
- Noumi’s solar array supplies 25% of the site’s power.
- Saputo Dairy Australia expects 46% offset by 2025, saving 61,000 tonnes of CO₂e annually.
- Australian Consolidated Milk is upgrading its wastewater treatment system to use whey permeate to produce biogas that will become the primary, self-generated source of electricity and gas for the factory.
- Bulla reduced emissions intensity by 42% from 2011 to 2022.
- Burra Foods sources 90% of its electricity from wind and solar farms and has reduced gas consumption by 5%.
Solar energy
Beston Global Foods is embracing solar energy in a move hailed as trailblazing for renewable power in dairy. Read their story here.
UN Sustainable Development Goal alignment
The commitments in the Australian Dairy Industry Sustainability Framework align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, sharing the same 2030 time horizon.
To reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate impact, Australian dairy has a clear goal to reduce GHG emissions intensity by 30% by 2030.