The Dairy Sustainability will release its first Annual Report this month at the World Dairy Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.

The Report sets the scene and starting point for the Framework, which now numbers over 40 members from across the dairy value chain and across the world, representing 17% of global milk production and over half a million farmers with a total of nearly 18 million cows.

Donald Moore, Chairman of GDAA says: “The way the dairy sector collaborates is envied by many other industries and the DSF is an excellent example of how the sector implements programmes that address prioritised sustainability challenges.”

The Report also includes information on the governance and future strategy of the DSF with a five year plan highlighting the aspirations for the GDAA.  There is a dedicated work programme in place including a database for members to upload their own sustainability programmes so they can be aggregated and tracked over time to demonstrate the sectors continuous improvement.

Subsequent reports will track and monitor sustainability progress of the global dairy sector from this starting point and will be published in the Spring each year. We are now starting work on the next report meaning Implementing Members should be aware they need to produce their own report for us.

The Annual Report is now available to download from the website.

In August the very first Advisory Council meeting of the GDAA was held in Amsterdam, Netherlands.  Representatives from the FAO, World Bank, American Humane Association, Rabobank, Solidaridad, Asda/Walmart, and the Global Round Table for Sustainable Beef (WWF were unable to attend) met with Governors of the GDAA and the Secretariat of the DSF.

The meeting, chaired by Jeremy Hill, Governor of the GDAA, took time to share with the Council the history, structures, policies, strategy and aspirations of the GDAA through a transparent process in an effort to seek feedback from this multi-stakeholder group.

Feedback and discussions from the Council were both challenging and supportive.  Though the feedback was extremely encouraging, there are actions the GDAA can still make to increase its effectiveness.

The Governors have now planned a meeting during the IDF World Dairy Summit to take time to reflect and plan based on the important feedback from the Council.

Based on the approval of the Advisory Council, the Governors of the GDAA are now in a position to launch a new category of membership of the DSF.  The new aggregation approach allows countries, regions or even small groupings of dairy sector organizations who are collaborating on sustainability programmes to register and report through one coordinating organisation.  This negates the need for individual organisations to undergo the DSF registration process and potentially duplicate an annual reporting procedure,

This approach is more efficient for both the DSF and members and importantly is a manner to ensure that the good work being undertaken via these channels is still captured via the Framework.

Want to find out more about DSF Membership click here