Environmental Footprint...

Beginning in 2007, we started work with the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment on a comprehensive lifecycle analysis (LCA) of Aurora Organic Dairy's products – from seed to shelf. This was the first LCA of a vertically-integrated dairy company, organic or conventional. The project studied a variety of impacts from the production of our products, including energy and water use as well as solid waste and carbon emissions.

Having control of our supply chain has allowed us to collect primary data over a three-year period. The Phase I research benchmarked our supply chain impacts from April 2007 to April 2008, the energy we expend in our operations, and the carbon emissions we create to bring high-quality organic milk to consumers. The Phase I report was completed in 2009.

Phase II was completed in 2010, which extended our LCA to other key environmental factors including water use, nutrient loads in and out of our system and solid waste streams. We also updated our energy use and carbon footprint LCA and demonstrated that simple, intuitive changes in our operations can result in meaningful reductions in our energy use and overall carbon footprint.

We are currently working with a third phase of graduate students to use this research to develop goals and milestones in managing our carbon footprint and overall impact on the environment. This will be published in our first-ever corporate sustainability report, scheduled for release later in 2012.