NSW Government scientific researchers have partnered with Danone, Fonterra, Nestle, and the New Zealand Ag Emissions Centre to develop a framework to support robust emissions reduction claims associated with the implementation of on-farm greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation technologies in dairy systems.
NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (NSW DPIRD) Senior Research Scientist Dr Aaron Simmons said the release of the MiLCA protocol will allow consumers and investors to have greater confidence in the carbon reduction claims of dairy companies.
The acronym 'MiLCA' stands for Mitigation actions in Life Cycle Assessment.
"Dairy companies are already implementing new technologies that reduce GHG emissions but have not been claiming these reductions due to the lack of a consistent approach that ensures claims are credible," Dr Simmons said.
"The development of the MiLCA protocol gives dairy companies the confidence to include these emissions reductions in their GHG emissions reporting and promote their action on climate change to consumers and investors, without the risk of being accused of greenwashing."
The technical paper sets a benchmark for scientific evidence standards to validate the effectiveness of emission reductions claims for existing and emerging carbon reduction innovations such as methane-inhibiting feed additives.
It also provides a consistent, transparent, and broadly applicable methodology setting evidence requirements to demonstrate minimal risks to other areas of the environment when the technology is used.
The protocol incentivises companies to collect high quality data specific to their supply chains to underpin claimable emissions reduction.
"MiLCA also provides guidance to those developing new GHG emissions reduction technologies on the research requirements if the dairy sector is to adopt these technologies," he said.
"While there are existing ways to assess the carbon footprint of dairy production, MiLCA closes a recognised gap by giving high integrity to GHG emissions reductions that can be robustly assessed and confidently integrated into carbon footprints.
"We are already seeing MiLCA being used by dairy companies."
The project partners developed MiLCA with the intention of making it publicly available and Dr Simmons presented it to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in July 2025.
The protocol could be adapted to other farming systems in NSW, and help provide greater certainty to businesses who want to invest in low carbon agriculture products.
It can be accessed at the Global Research Alliance website and builds on that organisation's other work on GHG emissions reductions.
