For the climate crisis, it is apparent that a short-term but imminent threat would be needed to rapidly escalate a more decisive reform. But by the time a climate crisis consequence becomes visible, it will already be too late. On a global scale, it’s always someone else’s issue. It is only when consequences become local that urgent changes will often be made. It is therefore the responsibility of policy and decision-makers to start incentivising and implementing decisive change with a greater level of urgency before ultimately the climate crisis creates global damage beyond repair.

Support for businesses embracing sustainability

Recently, the EU’s European Enterprise Network has begun issuing energy efficiency grants of up to €10,000 to SMBs with projects supporting energy optimisation. These initiatives must reduce the company’s overall energy consumption by more than five per cent. In essence, a needed reward for businesses that are adopting sustainability agendas and creating a greener footprint for their operations.

This is a small step in the right direction. After all, a financial incentive is a great way to encourage greener action. Yet more can be done on a government level to support larger sustainability changes before it is too late. Rewarding businesses can be a way to incentivise sustainable-thinking businesses, but a firm hand laying down sanctions is even more effective in ensuring businesses get in line, particularly with those neglecting their sustainability initiatives. Governments hold a responsibility to ensure that businesses start to fall in line on the road to net zero, especially when the climate crisis threatens to cause damage in the years ahead if left unchecked at all.

Crisis-ready plans or not

The UK Committee for Climate Change (CCC) has already stated the UK government has no credible plan when it comes to combatting and standing resilient against the increasing effect of extreme weather and the climate crisis. When it comes to government policy, urgent necessary action and impetus aren’t there. Unless there is a financial motive or a benefit to the national economy, the currently implemented policy doesn’t appear to be interested in investing in meaningful change for the sake of the environment – to the detriment of future generations that will be forced to suffer its consequences.

Summits like COP28 spark the discussion for meaningful climate reform, and most recently it was the source of an agreement signalling the “beginning of the end” for the fossil fuel era by laying the ground for a swift, equitable transition underpinned by deep emissions cuts. Global demonstrations of the power of unity in government are great wins, but action to ensure there’s legitimate follow-through across both governments and businesses is also key – otherwise, it’s all talk and no substance.

Targeting the offenders is key

The food industry, and particularly the food processing sector, is a key target needing scrutiny when it comes to the conversation around industry environmental impacts. Looking at how their current processes operate, many food processing businesses still cling to outdated, traditional processes although technology has advanced for several decades. Optimising processes, especially by embracing electrification and sustainability, is no longer just an option but a necessity for the future.

It’s time for government and policymakers to lead the charge in tackling these mounting climate concerns with meaningful action. Sustainable reform is needed across dairy supply and processing lines. Businesses must be concerned about their climate impact and carbon footprint when making decisions about upgrades to operations, making the effort needed to cut back on their emissions now more than ever.

Cutting back is key on a business-by-business basis. Of course, business leaders are more conscious than ever about making their agendas greener and upgrading to more sustainable technologies across supply and processing lines often also makes them more future proof in the long run. But if governments can support businesses and dairy lines, even more, to help them meet sustainability initiatives on the road to net zero, we can see global change on a macro level as the combination of everyone doing their part.

While urgent action would be the best-case scenario, ultimately it is more realistic to accept that net zero will be a long road – but the destination is worth the longer journey. All that is needed is for governments to steer businesses in the right direction where needed.

The post The time for green is now appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

Its production site in Suhr, where the Emmi Goodday lactose-free range is manufactured, is now connected to a remote steam ply network, run by district heating Wynenfeld (FEWAG) after more than five years of planning and realisation time.

“We chose Emmi Suhr for FEWAG environmentally friendly district heating, because we can reduce carbon emission by more than 5,000 tons per year and our energy-intensive production processes can operate as environmentally friendly and sustainable,” explains Emmi project manager Hansjörg Bernet.

To connect Emmi Suhr to the FEWAG network, the steam line had to be extended by two kilometers and a hot water line was relocated at the same time.

Rolf Schumacher, managing director of FEWAG, explains the associated challenges: “The extension has worked well. But there were also some surprises in line construction. Therefore, the construction work took three months longer than originally planned.”

The heat from the public system is delivered directly and ready to use and therefore less carbon is emitted as from conventional heating systems.

“With the newly built hot water line, we can provide several additional residential areas with environmentally friendly district heating in the future,” says Marco Genoni, the mayor of Suhr.

Behind the production of district heating is a complex closed process: the combustion of waste in the incineration plant causes heat to arise. From this heat comes fresh vapour. This in turn is passed into a steam turbine. Arriving at Emmi Suhr, the process steam enters the forming station, from where steam finally is used for production.

The post Emmi reduces emissions appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

“Without milk we cannot produce cheese, butter and quark. No milk can be produced without farmers. Without the animals, especially the cows, there is no milk, which we can process. The animals need their habitat and food. It goes without saying that we do everything to protect and look after nature and everything that goes with it. Because we know that we cannot exist without nature. We live environmental protection and sustainability – every day,” says CEO Hubert Dennenmoser.

The dairy group has been EMAS certified since 2015. EMAS is an eco-audit for companies developed by the European Union.

The Allmikäs has its own thermal power station and the entire roof area of the newest warehouse at the HQ is equipped with a photovoltaic system. The dairy also has joint energy generation with the other companies, which is why the energy requirement has fallen by around 20-30% and is therefore lower than that of comparable companies.

As many other dairies, it has a system for heat recovery, which uses the waste heat from various heat sources.

Almost all of the measures, which have contributed to reducing energy consumption and thus also reducing greenhouse gases, were originally measures to improve economy, but have had many environmental benefits too.

The post Allgau Milch Käse reveals sustainability gains appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

Launched in 2008, the Dairy UK Environmental Benchmarking Survey has charted the continuous environmental improvement of UK dairy processors. This year’s survey report has shown dairy processors making yet further strides including:

• 20% increase in primary energy efficiency (kWh/tonne);
• 17% decrease in energy related carbon per kg milk (kg CO₂/kg);
• 20% increase in water efficiency (m³/tonne);
• 94% of ex-factory waste is recycled or recovered;
• 23% average recycled content by weight across all packaging.

Yet again the results from the Benchmarking Survey have shown dairy processors making positive progress made across the entire dairy processing sector and continuing to build their commitments to continuous environmental improvement set under the Dairy Roadmap.

These results come as the sector conducts a wider review of the Dairy Roadmap, looking at a programme of work examining how the dairy sector can contribute to the delivery of Net Zero, with a series of workshops underway across the supply chain to engage stakeholders on the topic.

Commenting on the results from this year’s Benchmarking Survey, Dr Judith Bryans, chief executive of Dairy UK said: “This year’s Benchmarking Survey is a testament to the seriousness and proactivity with which dairy processors treat their environments. In these sustained improvements made over more than a decade, the industry shows that sustainability is not a topic taken lightly and that companies are committed to improving year in and year out.”

The post Another year of environmental improvement for UK dairy processors appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

These ground-breaking plans are in response to the challenges set out by Scottish Government in their Energy Strategy and the transition within the dairy sector to zero carbon operational processes.

The Graham’s project forms part of the flagship Low Carbon Innovation Transition Programme (LCITP) for Heat and Industry and was awarded grant support in 2020 to deliver the proposed development, alongside a Skills Development and Information Exchange to support Fife’s Clean Growth Agenda.

The aim is to complete the project by the spring of 2021.

The low carbon effluent treatment plant is an innovative solution to utilising waste residue (whey) from cheese making to produce green heat and electricity, that will be used on the Graham’s site through a closed pipe network. As part of Graham’s wider green investment plans for business, the proposed development will generate renewable power that will deliver:

• 80% of the site’s baseload electricity
• 50% of peak electric load
• 50% of boiler gas supply
• 20% reduction in vehicle and traffic flow to and from the site
• 50% reduction in effluent disposal, a saving of 62.94 kgCO2e/h.

Robert Graham, managing director for Graham’s The Family Dairy said, “Building a sustainable environment for our next generation is incredibly important to our family. We are actively working to achieve net zero carbon across every area of our business.

“The dairy sector has the potential to lead in the transition to a net zero carbon economy, particularly within the areas of heat and transport. Our plans for the Glenfield dairy in Cowdenbeath will mark a step change in investment within the dairy sector in zero carbon innovation, infrastructure and skills development to accelerate climate adaptation within industry. This builds on our recent investment in a 15 MW solar park on our farmland in the Carse of Stirling as we move our business, at speed and scale, to decarbonise.”

Through consultation with Fife Council, extensive environmental analysis has been undertaken to inform the design, siting, layout and mitigation measures for the Graham’s project. These assessments which cover air quality, noise, aerosols, transport, landscape, ecology and drainage comply, in full, with technical standards to ensure the development will not impact on public health or neighbouring amenities.

Graham’s says that the plant will deliver major benefits for Cowdenbeath and the local environment, with fewer emissions from the site, reduced fossil fuel use and a 20% reduction in movement of HGV trucks to and from site.

The post Graham’s The Family Dairy’s investment in bioenergy is a first for Scottish dairy appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

It was honoured for the project at its Lamprechtshausen cheese dairy that contributes to the better use of waste heat in various areas. The measures implemented save considerable amounts of energy and carbon emissions each year.

SalzburgMilch has been a climate active project partner of the Austrian Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism for a number of years and is committed to continuously reducing energy consumption, it said.

“Responsible use of resources has been of particular importance to SalzburgMilch for many years,” said Andreas Gasteiger, managing director of SalzburgMilch. “Many measures in a wide range of areas, such as the use of electric cars in the vehicle pool or various projects at our two company locations, also contribute to this. This has reduced our energy consumption by 14% in the past three years.”

At its site in Lamprechtshausen, two separately managed tanks, one as a heat store and one as a cold store (each with a capacity of 120m³), are used as a so-called heat swing. The whey produced during cheese production is cooled by a heat exchanger and the heat generated is stored in the warm tank of the heat swing.

In order to reach the necessary temperatures, the whey has to be cooled by means of a refrigeration system and the washing water has to be reheated by steam through natural gas boilers.

In the course of the project, the existing storage facilities are connected in series, so the usable storage volume is merged into a common, layered storage volume of 240m³. With this measure, the differences between waste heat generation and waste heat consumption can be compensated much better.

An additional heat exchanger for whey cooling enables the washing water to be directly heated with the 50°C warm whey from the hard cheese production, which means that primary energy is no longer required for heating. To the extent of the additional waste heat used, cooling energy for the whey is also saved.

These measures ensure significant reductions in natural gas (791,596 kWh/year), electricity (154,730 kWh/year) and CO2 (233,307 kg/year).

The post SalzburgMilch collects climate award appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

This achievement not only exceeds the 13.6% improvement required under the scheme by 2020, but also the 15% target set under the UK Dairy Roadmap, and is the latest in a long line of sustainability wins for the industry over the last decade.

These findings are supported by the findings of this year’s Dairy UK Environmental Benchmarking Report, which also demonstrated the success of the sector in improving on a range of environmental metrics. Key achievements included a 20% increase in water efficiency; 94% of factory waste now being recycled or recovered; and only 1.4% of input lost as food waste.

Dairy UK chief executive Dr Judith Bryans said: “These results once again show how dairy processors have taken the initiative on environmental sustainability and are really driving forward positive changes. Of course, when it comes to sustainability our work is never done, but these results show that we can, and we are, making huge strides towards reducing our impact.”

Launched in 2008, the Dairy UK Environmental Benchmarking Report provides UK dairy processors the ability to compare their environmental performance anonymously against other sites in the sector, highlighting areas of success and improvement.

The post Sustainability report shows wins for dairy industry appeared first on Dairy Industries International.