In this issue...

There's more news on the DSF member's meeting in Rotterdam on 14 October, information on global indicators deleopment and an update from the GDAA Advisory Council meeting and the Post Implementation Review. Plus much more...

As we know many of our members will be travelling to Rotterdam this October for the World Dairy Summit, we are planning a focussed morning session from 8.30am on Friday 14 October (this will be followed by the GDP Annual Meeting). The venue is the Rotterdam Marriott Hotel, opposite the central railway station.

Please join us to connect with other DSF members as well as members of the GDAA Governor's Group.

The agenda will include:

• The opportunity to hear, and give feedback on, the outcomes and recommendations of the recently conducted Post Implementation Review. A copy of the review will be sent to attendees in advance of the meeting.

• An interactive session on the future direction and activities for the Framework as it progresses into its next phase of development

All members have received an email invitation. If you have not done so, please contact Philippa Stagg who will arrange for you to receive the relevant information. A more detailed agenda will be issued in advance of the meeting but please book your place now as we have limited spaces left.

The GDAA multi-stakeholder Advisory Council met in August in Amsterdam. The group received a presentation from the consultants who undertook the Post Implementation Review (PIR) and through reviewing the outcomes suggested strategic actions that the Framework should consider implementing to address opportunities identified by the PIR process.

Sustainability is high on the agenda of consumers around the world and this year's IDF World Dairy Summit has a number of sessions focussing on this subject. Here are just two examples:

• Environment and biodiversity session (Tuesday 18th October) - the challenges of dairy farmers in maintaining a biodiverse and productive landscape - with Sophie Bertrand of CNIEL France and Erik Smale, dairy farmer in the Netherlands.
• Sustainable healthy diets (Wednesday 19th October) - including the challenges of the sector, such as GHG emissions - with Rogier Schulte and Pieter van`t Veer, Wageningen University & Research.

The full program and registration details can be found here

The DSF Extranet is a members-only resource sharing links to over 200 tools, resources, scientific papers and much more.

You can access the Extranet here by using the same unique login details as for the DSF database.

We would also encourage members to send us information, tools and resources for including on the Extranet that can support dairy colleagues in solving their challenges. This can be done via the email link 'Share a Resource'. 

As you are aware, the DSF is a Framework that is designed to convey the continuous sustainability improvement of the dairy sector globally.  In October this year (at the DSF members meeting – Rotterdam October 14) we will launch the first two indicators, GHG Emissions and Animal Care.  

At the recent multi-stakeholder Advisory Council meeting the need for the indicators to be implemented more rapidly than originally planned was highlighted.  As such the next five ‘indicators’ have been identified for development, with the aim of all being launched in 2017.

A report commissioned by the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and UK companies presents practical measures that could deliver a more sustainable dairy industry.

The report ‘Commercial gains from addressing natural capital challenges in the dairy sector’  is an important first step in understanding how to create a more sustainable dairy industry in the UK.

The  model used may be relevant for other parts of the world.

This letter from the University of Oxford was published in The Economist in August 2016 - food for thought for evolving science.

The effects of methane

When you stated that methane is “25 times as potent” a cause of global warming as carbon dioxide, you perpetuated the myth that there is a single conversion factor that translates the climate effect of methane into what would be caused by an “equivalent” amount of carbon dioxide (“Tunnel vision”, July 23rd). The number you quoted is based on a measure called “global warming potential”. This measure exaggerates the importance of methane because it fails to properly reflect the importance of the short (12 year) lifetime of methane in the atmosphere compared with carbon dioxide, which continues to transform the climate for centuries.

SAI Platform and the GRA’s Livestock Research Group popular publication Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from livestock: best practice and emerging options is now available in French and Spanish as well as the original English.