Aurora Organic Dairy, a leading US producer of private-label organic milk and butter, today (9 January) launched a major initiative to measure and reduce the carbon footprint across its product lifecycle.
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Aurora said the scheme, developed in conjunction with the University of Michigan, and funded by the Colorado-based Aurora Organic Dairy Foundation.
The foundation’s first grant of more than US$320,000 will be used to conduct lifecycle and sustainability research at Aurora Organic Dairy’s facilities, including its High Plains organic dairy farm in Colorado and its Coldwater organic dairy farm in Texas.
Led by associate professor Gregory Keoleian and Martin Heller, the research initially will focus on developing an energy and carbon footprint model, creating a baseline against which Aurora Organic can make improvements in its sustainability performance.
The study will identify those processes that contribute the greatest environmental impacts, focused primarily on total energy consumption and carbon emissions.
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By GlobalData“We intend to learn as much as we can about how to make organic agriculture even more sustainable,” said Mark Retzloff, president and chief organic officer of Aurora Organic Dairy.
The move comes a month after Aurora was named in lawsuits in the US that alleged milk from the dairy sold as organic in a number of US retailers was not truly organic.
Earlier in the year, Aurora agreed to stop using the organic label on some of its milk and change its farming practices amid allegations that it was violating organic standards.
As Aurora has grown to become the largest organic dairy in the US, the company has attempted to replicate the efficiencies of conventional dairy farms. As a consequence, Aurora faced claims that it has not been abiding by rules governing organic production.
The company reached a deal with the US Department of Agriculture after a threat to tear up its organic certification.
Under the agreement with the USDA, Aurora was ordered to, among other things, provide more pasture for its cows; reduce the number of cows; and not market certain products as “organic”.
Aurora said at the time that the agreement served as a “dismissal” of the allegations against the company.
