Colorado based Aurora Organic Dairy, has announced a partnership with the University of Michigan to measure and reduce its company’s carbon footprint. The reduction of energy and material use will be across the entire product lifecycle, from cattle feed to cartons in retail dairy cases.
Aurora Organic Dairy Foundation, a new not-for-profit organization formed to fund research, market-development initiatives and community-building activities benefiting organic agriculture, will foot the bill for the initiative.
The foundation’s first grant of more than $320,000 will fund a long-term research partnership with the Center for Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment. The center will conduct lifecycle and sustainability research at Aurora Organic Dairy’s facilities, including its High Plains organic dairy farm near Platteville and its Coldwater organic dairy farms in Texas.
The study will identify the current carbon footprint of the operations and then seek to improve Aurora Organic’s sustainability performance by adjusting energy supply and demand options, non fuel-related carbon emissions, and energy and greenhouse gases from material resources such as packaging.