• Home
• About Us
• Subscribe
• Newsletter
• Advertise
• Contact

Erin Fitzgerald, senior vice president, sustainability, for the Innovation Center for US Dairy

One might think that I would need an agricultural or environmental background to lead the US Dairy Sustainability Commitment, but I don’t. In past positions I spent time in entrepreneurial settings working on difficult, long-term projects that required considerable culture change. That experience equipped me for developing sustainability initiatives in the dairy industry. I think sustainability is about creating unique business propositions that achieve goals for the bottom line, but, more importantly, sustainability is about working with people to make change a reality.
In the US, sustainability has come to the forefront of business strategy much like the evolution of information technology in the 1990s. No one knew exactly what “IT” was going to be, except that “IT” was big. Looking back we now know that it had profound impacts on our economy and how we conduct business. The efforts of companies and industries to become more sustainable – environmentally, socially, and economically – are significant, but the scale of the change we can accomplish is yet to be realised.
The Dow Jones Sustainability World Index is currently $10 billion (€7.29bn) in market capitalization and tended to outperform the Dow Jones Industrial Average during the economic crisis (AT Kearney). Companies in this index are analyzed by their leadership and investment in green initiatives.
Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) estimates $3.07 trillion (€2.26 trillion) out of $25.2 trillion is being invested in the US. In short, sustainability is going to continue to affect how we perform. My biggest challenge to date is that the scope and urgency always seems bigger than what one organisation or individual can address. Therefore, you need to find quick wins, and mobilise lots of people to support a larger effort. This also has been my biggest achievement so far. In 2009, the Innovation Center for US Dairy facilitated an industry-wide, voluntary commitment to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for fluid milk by 25 per cent by 2020. We have more than 700 people from across the industry working on projects to achieve that goal.
Since the launch of the initiative, we have had a mix of responses from within and outside of the industry, but overall I am so impressed with our dairy farmer leadership, who, despite tough economic times, believe in this long-term strategy.
The US Dairy Sustainability Commitment Progress Report (www.USDairy.com/Sustainability) chronicles the success so far by bringing stakeholders from across the industry together around a common vision. When fully implemented, 10 sustainability projects have the potential to reduce emissions of fluid milk by 11 per cent by 2020, and add $238 million in business value by reduced operating costs and increased revenue streams.
We actively promote the sustainability projects underway, as well as our life cycle assessment (LCA) research and process-based modeling, via industry events and public relations.
We are members of the International Dairy Federation, which brought organisations together to sign the Global Dairy Agenda for Action, a commitment to a more sustainable dairy industry. We all have to work together toward 21st century solutions that make the global dairy industry, people and the earth economically, environmentally and socially better – now and for future generations.
When I am not working, I love to cook. Don’t follow me in the grocery store! I check out all of the unique ingredients and products most people have never heard of. I love to use them in new recipes.

Login

Email: Password:

SUBSCRIBE

• Terms
• Privacy
• Accessibility
• Site Map
• ©Bell Publishing 2010. All Rights Reserved