How scientific advancements fuel life-cycle assessments
The U.S. dairy industry uses data-driven insights to refine sustainability strategies, reduce emissions and measure progress. Read More

This article is sponsored by The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy.
Sustainability is not a static goal; it’s a continuous journey requiring industries and companies to learn, adapt and innovate at every step. While the path looks different for everyone, all businesses, sectors and geographic regions face both successes and challenges. For the U.S. dairy industry, life cycle assessments (LCAs), which examine the environmental impacts associated with all stages of producing a product, have been invaluable tools, enabling the industry to estimate environmental footprints and identify key opportunities for improvement, particularly in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As scientific methodologies evolve and data becomes more granular, LCAs have become more informative — and more actionable — than ever before.
Advancing with the science
The U.S. dairy industry was the first in the food and agricultural sector to conduct a full LCA on a national scale in 2008. And in 2020, the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy — a forum that convenes industry stakeholders across the value chain to align on shared social responsibility priorities — set aggressive environmental stewardship goals to advance dairy’s role in building a sustainable future, including its ambition to achieve GHG neutrality, optimize water usage and improve water quality by 2050. As expectations continue to rise and global GHG reporting guidelines evolve, the dairy industry continues its deep examination of the latest science and reporting metrics, especially in the context of having a strong baseline from which to measure the industry’s 2050 goals.
Thus, two new LCA-focused projects will focus on dairy production at the field and farm level, and the other examines processing — enabling the combined results to span from the field where crops are grown to the dairy farm, to the processing facility where dairy products are made. While still in-progress, the goal is for these analyses to be published in a scientific journal next year. The new LCAs will establish a 2020 baseline that will reflect advancements in science, methods, metrics and reporting guidelines that have occurred in the last 16 years.
Evolving methodologies for greater insight
LCAs have always been a cornerstone of environmental assessment, but like all scientific tools, they must advance as new information comes to light. For agriculture, the shift towards capturing more nuanced and comprehensive data has transformed how we understand environmental impacts and the strategies needed to minimize those impacts. Thanks to advancements in research, data and computational modeling, the resulting assessments have the potential for greater accuracy and geographic specificity than ever before.
Consistent with this trend, the two new LCAs being conducted by the U.S. dairy industry have shifted from the use of survey-based methods to collect primary data, to instead use publicly available primary data collected by USDA and other agencies in combination with data from remote sensing technologies such as satellite imagery. This approach also leverages peer-reviewed empirical models to estimate GHG emissions associated with different practices at the field, farm and processor levels. The end products are based on geographic resolution down to the level of specific counties.
Using this approach, the LCAs provide deeper insights into how farming practices, such as conservation tillage and cover crop use, influence GHG emissions and, at the dairy plant level, how specific processes contribute to the footprint. The cutting-edge methods are consistent with global GHG accounting standards and reporting frameworks, such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), International Dairy Federation and GHG Protocol.
These analyses are among the most regionally representative LCAs that any agriculture group has conducted and cover the entire dairy category — evaluating GHG emissions across 12 regions and more than 99 percent of U.S. dairy products. As a result, the 2020 LCAs will paint a more accurate and complex picture of U.S. dairy’s GHG emissions, enabling us to share insights with the industry regarding which emissions mitigation options will have the greatest positive impact in their regions.
The power of data for long-term sustainability
Having more accurate data and models that align with current standards may reveal unexpected findings, but we welcome this development as ultimately positive for industry and society. By better understanding the challenges that lie ahead, companies and whole industries can take more targeted actions that lead to meaningful reductions in emissions. In the dairy industry, for example, we know more about how innovations such as methane-reducing feed additives and advanced manure management techniques drive progress — not only reducing emissions but also optimizing resources and operational efficiencies.
As businesses reassess their environmental performance with updated learnings, transparency remains critically important. Clear, evidence-based communication of new findings is essential to maintaining trust with consumers, investors and other stakeholders. The availability of more precise and accurate data is not about backtracking — it’s about using the best available information to drive more effective solutions.
Measuring progress, scaling innovation
U.S. dairy farmers have long been leaders in sustainability, finding innovative ways to reduce environmental impact and protect natural resources. Whether it’s recycling water multiple times, converting food waste and manure into renewable energy or upcycling byproducts into animal feed, farmers remain steadfast environmental stewards, adopting new practices and technologies to produce nutritious dairy foods every day.
As the dairy industry continues to evolve, LCAs will be an important tool for both measuring environmental progress and modeling future scenarios. Life cycle assessments enable the industry to stay ahead of the curve, using data to refine business strategies and stay on target with long-term sustainability goals. They have the power to inform strategic investments in science and technology, and can point the way towards impactful projects “on the ground.” The path to GHG neutrality by 2050 is ambitious, but with ongoing innovation and a commitment to science-based solutions, the industry is well-equipped to achieve it.
