At the World Dairy Summit in Vilnius Global Dairy Agenda for Action (GDAA), which provides governance for the global dairy sector’s efforts in addressing its sustainability challenges, announced the publication of its inaugural Dairy Sustainability Framework (DSF) Annual Report, the dairy sector’s program to align, connect and demonstrate continuous improvement in sustainability.
Launched at the World Dairy Summit in Yokohama in October 2013, the DSF was developed as part of a wider sector effort to continually improve sustainability performance and transparency. The dairy sector globally has responded positively to the introduction of the DSF, with first year membership quickly growing to 41 Implementing and Affiliate members.
The report outlines how members, who currently represent 17% of global milk production and over half a million farmers with a total of nearly 18 million cows, will report on their own sustainability initiatives within 11 set criteria. These categories are to be prioritized at the local/regional level with participants tracking initiatives along a continuous improvement spectrum. Many of these initiatives already have targets set against them and will be reported on in an aggregated manner in future DSF Annual Reports