Water availability and quality

• Criteria Overview: Read and download the Water Availability and Quality Criteria Overview.
• Strategic Intent: Water availability, as well as water quality is managed responsibly throughout the dairy value chain.
• Indicators:
  1. Effluent management plan (EMP) adopted to minimize impacts to water quality;
  2. Water use efficiency for production and processing is measured.
• Theory of change: A well-developed effluent management plan will help maintain the quality of surface and groundwater by minimizing the negative impacts of effluent discharge containing organic matter, nutrients, salts, or chemicals and by minimizing erosion from effluent discharge. Measuring water use efficiency will allow farmers/facilities to benchmark water use and track improvements to help ensure water availability is managed responsibly.
• Reporting Strategy: Each participating member organization that has prioritized this criterion will define what constitutes an EMP. Member organizations will report if they have implemented an EMP during the period. Member organizations at processing level will report water use efficiency, measured as the amount of water (litres) required to produce a volume of product (kg), using the IDF Water Footprinting approach or similar methods. Members must calculate the arithmetic mean plus the range (highest and lowest values) for their organization.
• Reporting Schedule: Baseline established 2017 Annual reporting period is calendar year (January 1- December 31) Reports submitted to DSF by March 31 each subsequent year

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