The Dairy Research Institute™, an affiliate of the Innovation Center, recently was awarded a $1.1 million grant to support greenhouse gas reduction efforts through the development of a Dairy Farm Stewardship Toolkit. The toolkit will allow dairy producers to evaluate their production techniques and identify potential improvements in management practices.

Today the Innovation Center for US Dairy released its Sustainability Commitment Progress report, a summary of the industry-wide efforts currently underway to increase the economic, environmental and social sustainability of the dairy industry. Since the launch of the Sustainability Commitment in 2007, the industry has worked together to establish voluntary goals, launch an environmental research agenda and spur innovation across the value chain. The U.S. Dairy Sustainability Commitment Progress Report summarizes these efforts from the commitment launch in 2007 through August 31, 2010.

Systemic Change and the US Dairy Industry

In this Issues in Depth call, Tripp Borstel, a consultant at Blu Skye and Erin Fitzgerald, Director of Social and Environmental Innovation at Dairy Management Inc. will discuss the story of the sustainability journey of the U.S. dairy industry and share some of the insights, challenges and lessons learned. Visit the Net Impact IID site to register.

In this white paper by John Whalen we describe how companies are breaking down barriers to the system change that is required to get to cost effective sustainability solutions.  The key: pre-competitive collaboration.