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London, 19th December 2019 – Findings published this week have shown another win for the dairy sector in improving its energy efficiency and adding to the list of impressive sustainability achievements by Processors over the last decade.

Data published this week in the Climate Change Agreement Biennial Report has shown that the dairy processing sector has delivered a 21% improvement in energy efficiency between 2008 and 2018.

This achievement not only exceeds the 13.6% improvement required under the scheme by 2020, but also the 15% target set under the UK Dairy Roadmap, and is the latest in a long line of sustainability wins for the industry over the last decade.

These findings are supported by the findings of this year’s Dairy UK Environmental Benchmarking Report, which also demonstrated the success of the sector in improving on a range of environmental metrics. Key achievements included a 20% increase in water efficiency; 94% of factory waste now being recycled or recovered; and only 1.4% of input lost as food waste.

Commenting on the findings of the Climate Change Biennial Report, Dairy UK Chief Executive Dr Judith Bryans said: “These results once again show how dairy processors have taken the initiative on environmental sustainability and are really driving forward positive changes. Of course, when it comes to sustainability our work is never done, but these results show that we can, and we are, making huge strides towards reducing our impact.”

Launched in 2008, the Dairy UK Environmental Benchmarking Report provides UK dairy processors the ability to compare their environmental performance anonymously against other sites in the sector, highlighting areas of success and improvement.