Environmental sustainability boost for Victorian dairy industry

An agreement signed between EPA Victoria and Fonterra, an international dairy company, will seek to drive better environmental outcomes for the Victorian dairy industry.

Known as a ‘Sustainability Covenant’, the new agreement outlines joint commitments to improving environmental performance, including improving ‘on farm’ environmental performance; supply chain environmental performance; and knowledge transfer using existing and new networks to share environmental outcomes.

EPA CEO John Merritt said the regulator’s agreement with Fonterra was the first time the dairy industry had been involved and would drive real triple bottom line improvements in the industry.

“We’re very pleased to have Fonterra on board. They will help EPA achieve its objective of improving overall environmental performance in this industry sector,” he said.

“We hope the covenant will have a flow-on effect - with Fonterra taking a leadership approach and demonstrating to industry and the community the value in becoming more sustainable.”

Fonterra’s General Manager of Sustainability, Bruce Donnison, said that Fonterra takes its responsibility to sustainability very seriously.

“In Australia, we manage supply chains from the dairy farm, through all stages of dairy manufacturing, all the way to the delivery of our products to wholesale and retail customers. It’s important that Fonterra takes a leadership role in doing what’s right to maintain and improve the sustainability of the dairy supply chain, as this makes good business sense now and even more so into the future,” he said.

One of the commitments in the agreement is a 3% per annum reduction in water intensity, carbon intensity and waste to landfill across Fonterra manufacturing sites for years two and three of the covenant.

“We have access to global expertise in dairy and we will continually use this expertise to reduce the impacts of dairy in a commercially viable way.

“We have made good progress in the area of sustainability, but there is still some way to go and much to be learned, and the Sustainability Covenant will act as a strong tool in helping to achieve a more sustainable dairy business,” concluded Donnison.

Dairy is Victoria’s largest agricultural sector contributing $2.3 billion to the state’s economy with dairy exports to around 100 countries in 2010.