The Dairy Roadmap, the UK’s flagship sustainability initiative, brought together dairy processors and representatives from farming organisations from across the country for a sustainability event, aimed at accelerating progress and innovation in environmental sustainability on behalf of the sector.
Held at Arla’s Innovation Farm based in Buckinghamshire, CEOs, environment managers and ag managers from dairy companies of all sizes and product mixes came together with farming orgs and industry stakeholders. Their aim: to discuss how the industry can pre-competitively address some of the existing barriers to accelerating the sector’s work on carbon foot printing, air quality, biodiversity and many other sustainability challenges, under the banner of the Dairy Roadmap.
Guests heard from the Dairy Roadmap Steering Group (comprised of the NFU, AHDB and Dairy UK), who outlined the history, aims and objectives of the Roadmap, and what actions it was working on to push forward sustainability progress within the industry towards achieving Net Zero.
Leading the event was Ash Amirahmadi – Dairy Roadmap Chair and Managing Director of Arla Foods UK, who commented: “Today’s workshop is a fantastic example of why working collectively at a pre-competitive level on sustainability is a must; we’re all on our own sustainability journeys, but it’s only by working as one that we can ensure we are moving forward, and securing the future we want for our industry.
“The Dairy Roadmap is an essential part of this as it helps cement our ambition, lays out priorities for the sector, and continues to set targets and find solutions which will benefit us all as we work towards our collective goal: continuous environmental improvement. By being here today and sharing our thoughts and learnings, we are renewing our commitment to the Roadmap as the initiative to take UK dairy sustainability forward”.
NFU dairy board chair Michael Oakes said: “The Dairy Roadmap is progressing at pace and it was great to see this event bringing together the entire industry to collaborate on the sustainability agenda.
“For farmers, the Roadmap is something we can be proud of and is a great tool to show our commitment to climate-friendly farming. The standardisation of industry aims and metrics will help demonstrate this and ensure we are all working towards the same goal – from the farm right through to retail.”
Lyndon Edwards, AHDB Board member and Dairy Sector Chair commented: “Workshops like this are a brilliant way for the dairy sector to come together on key strategic issues such as sustainability, and it gives us the opportunity to seize the initiative and take the lead role on the future environmental challenges facing our industry.”
