Sustainable Dairy Production

Sustainability is a pressing issue in all types of manufacturing, and the dairy industry is no exception. Studies have shown that current dairy production methods have a large environmental impact, whilst regulatory, societal and consumer pressures are forcing the industry to quantify its carbon and water footprints, and to adopt more sustainable practices. It is clear that sustainability will be on the agenda for the foreseeable future.

Although it is expected that in the coming years there will be billions of new consumers creating new business opportunities for dairy companies, some crucial issues remain. It has been concluded that the current global food system is on an unsustainable track, which poses a threat to global food security. The dairy sector needs to be transformed in order to secure a long–term food supply for future generations.

Sustainable Dairy Production aims to provide the dairy and related industries with inspiration to find sustainable solutions for today and tomorrow. The book gives an overview of the main aspects of a sustainable dairy production chain. It then follows the approach a dairy company can apply to upgrade their degree of sustainability in terms of energy use, carbon footprint and water footprint. The book is richly illustrated with examples of real–life companies approaches
to the challenge of sustainability.

The book is aimed at everyone working with dairy production issues, whether from an industry or an academic perspective. Readers will particularly value the insights from the many dairy industry experts who make up the author team and the new production design concepts that are included in the book.

Preface ix

Contributors xi

1 Introduction 1
Peter de Jong

1.1 Sustainability and the dairy industry: hype or trend? 2

1.2 Quantifying the issue: measuring footprints 4

1.3 Communication: telling the whole story 5

1.4 Structure of this book 6

References 8

2 Greenhouse gas emissions from global dairy production 9
Theun V. Vellinga, Pierre Gerber and Carolyn Opio

2.1 Introduction 9

2.2 Methods for calculating emissions 11

2.3 Total emissions of the dairy sector 14

2.4 Discussion 26

References 28

3 Life cycle assessment 31
Maartje N. Sevenster

3.1 Introduction 31

3.2 Current life cycle assessment 32

3.3 Life cycle assessment in application 37

3.4 Life cycle assessment of dairy products 41

3.5 Life cycle assessment in strategy and policy 50

Acknowledgements 51

References 52

4 Sustainability and resilience of the dairy sector in a changing world: a farm economic and EU perspective 55
Roel Jongeneel and Louis Slangen

4.1 Introduction 56

4.2 Dairy economics and sustainability 62

4.3 Sustainability evaluation of the EU dairy sector 71

4.4 Agricultural policy 79

4.5 Conclusion 83

References 85

5 Dairy processing 87
Arjan J. van Asselt and Michael G. Weeks

5.1 Introduction 87

5.2 Key unit operations and their water and energy use 89

5.3 Possibilities for optimisation 101

5.4 Revisiting dairy processing: breakthrough technologies 114
References 117

6 The role of packaging in a sustainable dairy chain 119
Erika Mink

6.1 Introduction 120

6.2 Packaging sustainability: a growing market expectation 123

6.3 Packaging s contribution to dairy sustainability 130

6.4 Global alignment of packaging requirements: implications for dairy 139

6.5 A company response: the example of Tetra Pak 150

6.6 Outlook: growing importance of economic and social pillars of sustainability 158

References 160

7 The business case for sustainable dairy products 163
Jaap Petraeus

7.1 Introduction 163

7.2 From a process–driven to a product–driven approach 164

7.3 Success factors for creating more sustainable processes and products 169

7.4 Implementation of sustainability within the company 175

7.5 The business case for sustainability 180

7.6 Policy and strategy adopted by different dairy companies 183

7.7 Looking to the future 183

7.8 Conclusion 184

References 186

Appendix: Overview of the sustainability policy and strategy of various companies 187

8 A case study of marketing sustainability 191
Grietsje Hoekstra, Corine Kroft and Klaas Jan van Calker

8.1 Introduction 191

8.2 What is sustainability? 193

8.3 Motivations for sustainability 196

8.4 Choose your battles: sustainability strategy issues 198

8.5 Getting to work 203

8.6 Communicating sustainability 212

8.7 Conclusion 217

Acknowledgement 218

References 219

9 Cradle to Cradle for innovations in the dairy industry 221
Wil A.M. Duivenvoorden

9.1 Introduction 222

9.2 A tool for C2C®–driven innovation (PROPER model) 229

9.3 Cradle to Cradle for the dairy industry 232

9.4 Conclusion 238

References 241

10 The future of sustainable dairy production 243
Peter de Jong

10.1 Future relevance of sustainable dairy 243

10.2 Next steps in chain innovation 244

10.3 Communication and marketing 247

10.4 Business case: people, planet and profit 247

10.5 Conclusion 249

References 250

Index 251

In summary, a very worth–while addition to the series that provides an excellent source for those working with this technology.   (International Journal of Dairy Technology, 16 July 2013)