Guide «Sustainability in artisanal cheese dairies in Switzerland»

Sustainability is becoming increasingly relevant for the marketing of food and is one of the top issues in international dairy competition. Consumers all over the world are placing high demands on food production and processing in terms of the environment, animal welfare and fair working conditions.
Numerous sustainability programs already exist in the dairy sector, both at international and national level. These existing sustainability programs in the dairy sector focus primarily on sustainability aspects in milk production and less on milk processing. Looking at the cheese value chain, it is indeed milk production that has the greatest environmental impact. Nevertheless, there are various aspects at the level of artisanal milk processing that are relevant to sustainability. In close collaboration with FROMARTE, the Swiss cheese specialists umbrella organisation, a sustainability guide for cheese dairies was developed, which identifies relevant indicators for measuring sustainability in the cheese value chain and outlines their possible implementation.
A total of 16 relevant sustainability topics were identified along the four sustainability dimensions (1) ecology, (2) economy, (3) social, and (4) governance and specific targets were defined for these 16 sustainability topics. The indicators ensure that commercial cheese dairies can measure and continuously improve themselves in terms of their environmental commitments, economic efficiency, contextual social stability and in terms of responsible corporate governance. The development of the guide as well as its implementation and impact in the cheese industry will be briefly outlined.
Jan Lemola and Matthias Meier, experts in the field of sustainability evaluation of food systems at BFH HAFL, are co-authors of this talk.