The U.S. Dairy Sustainability Awards program celebrates excellence in collaborations, partnerships and innovations across the dairy value chain. Here are a few highlights from our award-winning members and others making a difference:

• Agri-Mark, Inc.-Known for their series of sustainability projects, the dairy-farm families of Agri-Mark dairy cooperative took a closed-loop approach, recycling cow manure, food scraps and food processing byproducts to produce renewable energy.
• Glanbia Nutritionals-As one of the leading manufacturers of American-style cheese and whey, the company was recognized for its adoption of a global sustainability strategy that promises to "nurture, grow and sustain the lives of our employees, milk producers, customers, consumers and communities."
• Hilmar-now has 100% of their reclaimed water being recycled and reused, most for crop irrigation. Read about their commitment to sustainability in the ninth annual report.
• Leprino Foods Co.-The company's Greeley, CO plant exemplifies environmental sustainability with replicable processes that ensure no precious resource isn't maximized. Built on an abandoned sugar-processing factory's site, it relies on a combined heat and power system with electricity from two natural gas turbines-meeting about 75% of the plant's power needs. The plant also employed technology that uses water from milk during the cheesemaking process to clean the facility, reducing the need for fresh water.
• • Milk Specialties Global unveiled operational and sustainability achievements with plans for the years ahead. Since 2014, proactive improvements to their supply chain and distribution have reduced their CO2 emissions by 7,800 tons annually. For example, by reducing total truck-miles traveled, they cut our freight-related annual CO2 emissions by 110 metric tons compared with our 2013 starting point. They also met rising product demand without increasing energy use by focusing on ways to efficiently expand production capacity. Since 2014, they decreased energy intensity (kWh/unit of end product) by 21 percent.
• Schreiber Foods-Learn how a collaboration between Schreiber Foods Inc. and Foremost Farms USA created a state-of-the-art water-treatment facility that can treat up to 1.4 million gallons of water per day using anaerobic digesters, serving as a road map for other dairy production facilities wanting to manage waste streams. They also reduced shredded-cheese packaging by 10 percent while keeping the same amount of cheese in the bag.

U.S. Dairy: Sustainability at the Heart of Global Ingredient Solutions

This video series features U.S. supplier efforts to deliver the value of milk to global customers, highlighting how sustainability is a the heart of U.S. Dairy every day. The first U.S. dairy supplier snapshot features Idaho Milk Products' ongoing efforts to help feed the world in a way they can take pride in, furthering planet-friendly practices embraced on the farm and delivering versatile, nutritious ingredients.

 In this installment of the video series showcasing U.S. Dairy’s sustainable ingredient solutions, Leprino Foods features a few of their innovative and environmentally-conscious practices. Already conserving resources and adopting clean technologies, they chart additional ambitious targets on their path to further reduce environmental impact and achieve carbon neutrality.

Explore how U.S. suppliers like Darigold are investing in solutions that are healthy for people and the planet, committing to continuous improvement and environmental progress on the farm all the way through delivery of nutritious dairy products and ingredients.