Trade group UK Dairy has launched a campaign to tell consumers of the progress the industry is making to cut carbon emissions, reduce plastic and packaging, and meet biodiversity goals.
The “It’s What We’re Made Of” campaign highlights key areas of the UK Dairy Roadmap and bids to showcase the industry as world-leaders in sustainability.
See also: Farmer Focus: Attitudes to once-a-day milking are changing
The UK Dairy Roadmap is a cross-industry initiative, founded in 2008, that works across the whole dairy supply chain to drive forward the sustainability of the entire UK dairy sector, from farm to fork.
The new campaign will run for 10 weeks across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Google Display – a collection of more than 200m sites, apps and videos where Google adverts can appear.
Three short videos have been created using a mixture of animation and farm footage.
The campaign highlights climate change, biodiversity, and plastics and packaging, and outlines the goals achieved so far and the progress on the longer-term targets.
Dairy Uk chief executive Judith Bryans said: “We have been working hard towards the sustainability goals set, with farmers and processors continuing to innovate and improve practices as we strive to meet our industry goal to net zero.
“Now it’s time for us to share a part of this story, and what we’re made of, with consumers.”
UK Dairy Roadmap statistics
Climate change
- 56% of dairy farmers are already taking action to cut greenhouse gas emissions, through steps such as improving energy efficiency and eliminating HCFC refrigerants
- 88 dairies (more than 50 companies) have signed the climate change agreements with the UK government, and improved their energy efficiency by almost 30% across the dairy industry since 2008
- Arla Dairy in Aylesbury became the first large liquid dairy in the world to become net-zero carbon in 2017
Biodiversity
- 30,000km of hedgerows and 37,000km of grass margins planted under the Campaign for the Farmed Environment
Plastic and packaging waste
- 78% of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) milk bottles have been recycled since 2008 – the average for plastic bottle recycling is 58%
- 89% of tertiary packaging (shrink wrap, wooden pallets, cardboard boxes) is reused or recycled
Animal Rebellion campaign
The Dairy UK campaign comes as animal rights group Animal Rebellion is planning major disruption to supermarket milk supplies this September, as activists step up their protest against the UK dairy industry.
In new campaign messaging, the group says it is “confronting the dairy industry head on, by stopping access to the supply of dairy across the country”.
In August 2021, dozens of Animal Rebellion activists blockaded a milk processing and distribution centre owned by Arla.
