A lot of effort is being put into a consumer-facing scheme to evaluate the environmental footprint of individual food products. This work is supported by dairy businesses and Muller Dairies in the UK is involved in one of the Carbon Trust’s pilot projects.

But there are already dairy products on sale with unique environmental accreditation, thanks to the Greener for Life (GFL) scheme. Run by West Country dairy farmer Winston Reed, this scheme tells consumers that food carrying the GFL logo has been produced, processed and retailed according to a tough environmental code.

At farm level, accreditation means assessment for environmental impact and drawing up soil and emissions management plans to mitigate that impact. It also requires farmers to implement conservation and animal welfare measures, improve herd productivity and consider small-scale renewable energy.

For manufacturers and retailers it means cutting waste to landfill, introducing more sustainable packaging solutions and signing a renewable energy contract.

In the long-run, GFL aims to introduce large-scale anaerobic digestion to generate electricity and heat for the whole accredited supply chain and even biomethane to run vehicles.

Pilots are under way with a supermarket and more than 100 dairy farmers.