Farmers and food industry giants have joined forces in a landmark agreement to fast-track sustainability across the entire British dairy supply chain.
The renewed Dairy Roadmap, one of the UK’s longest-standing environmental initiatives, now brings together the full value chain—from farm gate to foodservice—to drive progress on climate targets, water use, biodiversity, and animal welfare.
The initiative, launched in 2008, unites farmers with major retailers, processors and foodservice leaders in a single, coordinated effort to tackle the sector’s environmental footprint.
It sets goals and targets in areas including on-farm emissions, energy efficiency, water usage and waste management.
The Roadmap also supports the global goal to limit warming to 1.5ºC, pledging zero contributions from the dairy sector towards global warming by 2050.
A new steering group has been formed to oversee the initiative, with representatives from Arla Foods UK, Dale Farm, Muller UK & Ireland, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, McDonald’s, and more.
Its first major milestone will be the independently-led Sustainable Dairy Pathways report, due in 2026, which will identify the innovation, funding and collaboration needed to meet net zero goals.
Bas Padberg, managing director of Arla Foods UK and the new steering group chair, said the alliance shows how serious the UK dairy sector is about change.
“Collaborating across the industry and with the biggest retailers and foodservice partners shows the commitment that we have in our sector to create a more resilient and sustainable future for our food,” he said.
“As a natural source of nutrition, the future for dairy is bright and I look forward to steering the collaborative effort that will drive real change.”
Judith Bryans, chief executive of Dairy UK, said the roadmap’s relaunch marks “a major milestone” and praised the sector for “uniting the value chain to move forward as one in reaching net zero, while protecting and enhancing nature along the way.”
She said: “The Dairy Roadmap is one of the longest standing sustainability initiatives in the food sector, beginning in 2008 and with nearly 18 years of hard work and successes to its name.”
NFU National Dairy Board Chair Paul Tompkins added that dairy farmers welcomed the renewed collaboration, stressing that they cannot meet sustainability demands alone.
He warned that the rising costs and complexity of compliance require support from across the supply chain. “The entire sector must rise to this growing challenge in order to maintain our valued place in baskets,” he said.
Over the coming months, farmers and stakeholders will be invited to help shape the Sustainable Dairy Pathways Report through a series of engagement opportunities.
