US – California Dairies, Inc. (CDI) a leading farmer-owned dairy cooperative in California has formally launched an initiative aimed at measuring, validating, and further improving sustainable business practices.
Under the initiative, CDI has assembled a team of experts in the field of sustainability to quantify the current baseline status of CDI’s supply chain in key areas of sustainability, as well as layout a roadmap of goals and targets going forward.
The dairy cooperative notes that priority areas including environmental stewardship, employee welfare, and animal husbandry will be considered by the experts when developing its new sustainability goals and targets.
According to Brad Anderson, CDI President, and Chief Executive Officer, the new initiative will help the cooperative formally quantify its sustainability efforts as its charts an achievable roadmap for the future.
“CDI’s membership has been leading the way in sustainable dairy farming investments, from water conservation to renewable solar energy to anaerobic digesters and more, and we continue to move as fast as technology and on-farm economics allow,” said Simon Vander Woude, Chairman of CDI’s Board of Directors.
“This is an opportunity to showcase that hard work, while doubling down to drive innovation and further improve our environmental footprint, ensuring that our farms produce some of the most sustainable milk in the world, across all the various pillars of sustainability.”
CDI’s announcement builds on a long history of focus on sustainability by the cooperative and its family dairy farms which spans over 20 years.
Formally quantifying its sustainability efforts also better positions the dairy cooperative to achieve its commitment to be carbon neutral or better by the year 2050.
Carma Chocolate becomes 100% sustainable
Meanwhile, in Switzerland, Barry Callebaut has announced that its Carma Chocolate has become the first of its chocolate brands to be produced with 100% sustainable ingredients.
This is a major achievement for the chocolate industry which is faced with several sustainability challenges including child labor, deforestation, and poor wages for farmers.
Carma has however proved this is possible by ensuring that every ingredient including cocoa, dairy, sugar, and vanilla is sustainable.
Barry Callebaut says that the brand looks to balance sustainability with reliability and consistency in taste profile and color, which is a critical part of the uniquely Swiss chocolate crafting process.
Carma, established in 1931, has been consistently contributing to the evolution of Swiss chocolate-making craft.
It was, for instance, the first Gourmet chocolate brand in Switzerland to certify cocoa with the UTZ program champions sustainable farming globally.
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