All dairy production accredited by Dairy Australia – which represents the country’s entire dairy sector – now meets the demands of the code, which measures 11 key indicators: soil health and fertility, soil loss, nutrients, pest management, biodiversity, energy, water, social and human capital, local economy and animal welfare.
As a result, all Australian-produced milk is now recognised as 100% sustainably sourced.
Dirk Jan de With, Procurement VP Ingredients & Sustainability at Unilever, said: “We have partnered with Dairy Australia over the past 18 months to benchmark the Australian dairy industry’s production standards against our Sustainable Agriculture Code standards. We were encouraged to find that Australia’s dairy industry is compliant with the Sustainable Agriculture Code.”
Dairy products from South East Asia & Australasia account for about 5% of Unilever’s total dairy supply.
Ian Halliday, Managing Director of Dairy Australia, says: “We are absolutely delighted that ours is the first dairy industry in the world to be recognised as meeting Unilever’s sustainability standards. We intend to show continuous improvement towards improving sustainable dairy farming.”
As a next step, to drive even higher standards of sustainable production, Dairy Australia, together with suppliers Murray Goulburn, Fonterra, and others have agreed to implement a pioneering sector-wide project to focus on soil use, biodiversity and waste management. This partnership for improvement will involve about 100 farms across Australia’s eight dairy regions.
Unilever also continues to work to drive sustainability initiatives with other suppliers around the world. As part of its Sustainable Living Plan, it aims to source 100% of all dairy produce used sustainably by 2020. At the end of 2012, it had achieved 31% of its goal, up from 10% in 2011.
By taking a long-term view on sustainability, Unilever hopes to ensure the security of its supply of raw materials, to reduce costs and to protect scare resources.