Dairy industry sustainability reporting

Background:

Quantification is a major hurdle for defining sustainability. A number of frameworks have sought to describe the overlapping and conflicting issues. Assumptions used in these models are often based on the belief that environment is the cornerstone of sustainability.

Others argue that sustainability includes socio-economic factors, a broader definition and measurement needs to be developed to make the concept of sustainability relevant. This modelling at farm, factory and consumer level gives a better understanding of the inter-relationships between sustainability variables. This will allow dairy stakeholders to develop strategies to:

• identify trigger points at which changes need to be instigated to mitigate potential negative impacts
• put in place adaptation plans for the local dairy industry and other key industries reliant on dairy
• Provide data to present to policy makers at all levels of government to guide decision making
  

Project objective:

Develop a Sustainability Scorecard to measure the current Triple Bottom Line (TBL) performance, assess the outcomes from these measurements, and utilise these data to determine the future shape of the dairy industry in Australia.

Project scope:

Measuring the impacts of the three TBL variables could hold the key to convincing governments and the community to embrace policies that lead to better social, economic and environmental outcomes. Measurement of all three provides the key to identifying best practice initiatives that are already occurring and which may hold the key to reducing emissions and pollution in tandem with economic and social progress.

This project seeks to develop the Sustainability Scorecard through a scientific approach to the project that will establish a significant contribution to corporate social responsibility. The methodology seeks to provide a valid source of information that can be used by policy makers to enhance or mitigate aspect of policy identified by fluctuations in the scorecard. This independent verification will enable policy setting to be adjusted due to adverse or unforeseen consequences

Outcomes/benefits:

• Identify baseline performance measures of the dairy industry in the areas of social, economic and environmental performance.
• Utilise this data, and measurement of this data, to identify and track positive and negative trends in sustainability towards identifying ‘best practice”.
• Provide the industry with rigorous scientific verifiable measures that can be used to inform government, the community and other stakeholders of social, economic and environmental challenges to the Australian dairy industry to allow policy makers and stakeholders to develop collaborative responses.
• Provide Dairy Australia with research tools to assist in the development of government and community responses to major structural change resulting from climate change.
• Test for future growth and new investment opportunities for the growth of the industry.
  

More information:

For more information, please contact Neil van Buuren, Dairy Australia Program Manager Resource Management and Technology.