Sustainable Dairy Partnership

Based on the Dairy Sustainability Framework, the SDP was developed in 2019 through a multi-stakeholder process that included dairy processors, industry associations, and dairy buyers, with the goal of driving continuous improvement in dairy sustainability. The SDP Reporting Hub was launched in 2021 with the carbon module added in 2023. The SDP version 2.0 is currently under development.

With 30% of the global milk volume engaged, the SDP is the single, standardised solution for on-farm sustainability reporting in the dairy sector.

The Sustainable Dairy Partnership (SDP) is a unified approach to driving continuous improvement in dairy sustainability for use in the commercial relationships between dairy buyers and processors. Building on the criteria for the Dairy Sustainability Framework (DSF), the SDP offers a business-to-business reporting framework for measuring progress and reporting on sustainability across the dairy value chain.

Designed to accommodate the diversity of dairy systems, the SDP empowers processors to conduct a materiality assessment and define context specific priorities. Through the five stages of the SDP which are aligned with the expectations of global dairy buyers, processors strengthen their sustainability management system and report their progress and impacts. By recognising national programmes and reducing the burden of buyer-specific programmes and audits, the SDP enables processors to demonstrate and improve sustainability efforts without duplicating effort.

The SDP provides dairy buyers with a harmonised framework for collecting information on the different ways processors are addressing sustainability, resulting in a simple, usable report. The assurance system, which includes independent third-party verification, provides buyers with confidence that processors are meeting SDP requirements.

By fostering innovation, transparency, and collaboration, the SDP is supporting the dairy industry in addressing the sectors’ sustainability challenges.