Life cycle assessment (LCA) of dairy processing industry: A case study of North India

India is the world's largest milk producer and contributes significantly to global milk production. In recent times, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a surge in demand for milk and other dairy products because of its high nutritional value. However, the dairy sector is responsible for colossal greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and environmental impacts (EI). The main objective of this study is to assess the gate-to-gate EI of several dairy products during its processing and packaging stage, using Impact 2002+ for assessing EI. Additionally, the study also explores various hotspots for analyzing the impact causing factors for these dairy products, for which, it employs the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach, using SimaPro software. Through its analyses the study shows that the consumption of electricity and fuel for thermal energy, utilization of freshwater and several chemicals, along with the packaging materials are some of the main contributing factors to EI. Further, the findings highlight that paneer, ice cream, and butter are the top three contributors to climate change. Based on the findings, the study recommends the dairy processing industry to minimize environmental damage through sustainable development. The study findings would improve sustainability performance of the dairy processing industry, and the suggested recommendations would help policy and decision-makers to minimize EI in the dairy processing industry.

Automated summary

India is the largest milk producer in the world and due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increase in demand for dairy products. However, the dairy sector is responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts. The study found that factors such as electricity and fuel consumption, use of freshwater and chemicals, and packaging materials contribute to environmental impacts in the dairy industry.