Public Funding for Milk Suppliers Association Limited

Reducing the energy wastage and carbon footprint of the dairy supply chain is one of the greatest challenges of this sector given net-zero targets set by the Scottish and UK Governments. The core of this project is to: * automate the gathering of operational data on a range of cooperative members' dairies for key energy consuming equipment; * present the analysis of that data to the management and staff in such a way that it highlights waste & opportunities for improvement; * track and reinforce efficiency improvements to embed it in the dairy's operation, lock in greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction and increase business sustainability; * facilitate peer-to-peer comparison and identification of best practice between farms; * identify opportunities for optimisation of logistics collections based on bulk milk storage status on farm through real time data; and * sustain the cycle of continuous improvement whilst maintaining and improving quality of product. A significant part of achieving Net Zero is behavioural change of individuals. The project's digital solution, by scoping GHGE from the milk vat to the creamery, will enable farmers and dairy plant operators to edge closer to their net-zero targets and engage as wide a spectrum as possible of stakeholders in the process of continuous improvement. This project will leverage the data produced by stakeholders to identify opportunities for improvement and to quantify the impact of changes made along the supply chain management to benefit all involved (including quality premiums for the farms, energy efficient transport and better creamery products). The traceability of CO2e value of every litre of milk (Emission Index) processed through this digital supply chain will lead to betterment of operational decisions on a daily basis. This approach also provides a marketable answer to the ever-growing demand of the supermarkets /consumer for carbon aware sources of dairy products. This project will be setup using 10 farms from the MSA coop in collaboration with other partners in South and West of Scotland.