UK dairy industry unveils sustainable roadmap to strengthen the sector

UK – The UK dairy industry has launched a new sector-wide sustainability roadmap calling for greater investment, collaboration and the rapid scaling of proven environmental solutions to strengthen the sector’s resilience through to 2030.

The Dairy Roadmap has launched Sustainable Dairy Pathways: The Path to 2030, an independently developed report setting out a practical plan for the UK dairy sector to accelerate environmental progress while maintaining food security, nutrition and the economic contribution of rural communities.

Commissioned by The Dairy Roadmap on behalf of the dairy value chain and authored by Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), the report brings together farmers, processors and other parts of the supply chain behind a shared pathway for the first time.

The report comes after a summer marked by extreme heat and weather pressures for dairy farmers, alongside the continuing impact of Bluetongue. It argues that climate resilience is becoming an increasingly important consideration for the sector, with implications for animal welfare, productivity and farm businesses.

At the same time, the report highlights the environmental improvements already achieved across UK dairy. National inventory data shows that on-farm emissions per litre of milk have fallen by around 22% since 1990, while methane emissions are almost 14% lower.

Industry data indicates that greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by 9% over the past five years. Processors have also reduced energy intensity by more than 30%, cut water use by more than 50% per kilogram of milk and reduced the proportion of waste sent to landfill from 24% to less than 2%.

It identifies four priorities for accelerating progress by 2030: doing more of what works now, by increasing the uptake of proven farming and processing practices, investing in infrastructure and technologies capable of delivering measurable environmental improvements.

Additionally, it focuses on preparing for emerging innovations and future opportunities that could further reduce the sector’s environmental footprint, and create the right enabling conditions, including policy, finance, data and advisory support.

Bas Padberg, chair of The Dairy Roadmap, said: “Sustainability is about securing the future of dairy farming, and now for the first time, the whole dairy value chain has come together behind a shared pathway to 2030.”

He added that the sector must continue to balance environmental improvements with its role in providing nutritious food, supporting rural communities and contributing to UK food security.

The report notes that 99.6% of UK households bought dairy products during the last year, underlining the category’s continuing importance to consumers and the wider food system.

Delivering the roadmap will require significant investment, with the report identifying £2.4 billion of investment needed to support the transition.

The Dairy Roadmap says governments will have an important role to play in recognising progress already made by the sector and creating the conditions for further investment.

In particular, the report highlights slurry management and storage as areas where targeted investment and supportive policy could accelerate environmental improvements.

The report also calls for greater collaboration across the supply chain to improve access to finance, strengthen knowledge transfer and skills, and align data collection.

For processors and manufacturers, the roadmap points towards continued investment in energy efficiency, water reduction, waste management and other measures capable of delivering measurable improvements across the dairy supply chain.

David Homer, Chair of the Sustainable Dairy Pathways Task and Finish Group, said: “The extreme heat experienced this summer highlights changing weather patterns, and the very real risks climate change presents to dairy farming. Alongside challenges such as Bluetongue, these pressures are already affecting animal welfare, productivity and farm resilience.”

Homer said the report’s value lies in bringing existing evidence, recommendations and proven actions together into a single plan.

The roadmap positions dairy as an important component of the UK’s future food system, rather than treating environmental performance and food production as competing priorities.

The UK dairy sector produces around 15 billion litres of milk annually, supports more than 50,000 on-farm jobs and a further 22,500 jobs in dairy processing, according to the report.

The Dairy Roadmap says the focus now needs to be on turning existing knowledge into action at scale, with farmers, processors, policymakers, financiers and other supply-chain partners working together to remove barriers to investment and adoption.

Sustainable Dairy Pathways: The Path to 2030 is the first of two reports commissioned by The Dairy Roadmap. A second report, scheduled for publication in 2027, will examine the sector’s longer-term pathway towards 2050.

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