SmartDairy - Climate-smart Dairy: Assessing Challenges, Innovations, and Solutions

Food systems are responsible for one-third of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Dairy production is a significant contributor to those emissions and, given that global demand for dairy is projected to increase, there is an urgent need to reduce emissions from this sector. The project aims to assess challenges, explore innovations, and create new solutions to achieve a climate-smart dairy system. Using a multi-actor, multi-disciplinary approach across four European countries, we will explore interconnections and consequences of climate-smart innovations within the dairy system. We will then use a living lab/stakeholder approach to co-design innovations that will subsequently be evaluated with dairy system stakeholders across the four countries: (Ireland, United Kingdome, Italy and Finland) In Italy, we will simulate the implications of new climate-smart policies and business models along the dairy supply chain. The project will co-create solutions that enable a climate-smart dairy system acceptable to all actors from farm to fork. Overall, ‘SmartDairy’ will create an impact by reducing GHG emissions, increasing resource efficiency, and reducing waste, bringing us a step closer to a climate-neutral future.