Eco-sustainable dairy sheep production: an LCA approach from Sardinia, Italy

In July 2016 the SheepToShip LIFE project was financed by the EU LIFE Programme Climate Action 2014-2020 with the aim to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from the dairy sheep sector in Sardinia, an absolute leader on dairy sheep raising [4]. In particular, the main objective of the project is to reduce by 20% in 10 years GHG emissions (nitrous oxide, methane and carbon dioxide) from the Sardinian dairy sheep supply chain. The immediate goals of the project are to encourage the environmental improvements of production systems in the sheep sector and to demonstrate the environmental, economic and social benefits deriving from eco-innovation in the dairy industry and sheep farming sector. Additionally, its actions promote the implementation of environmental policies and rural development, guided by the Life Cycle Thinking approach, and aimed at enhancing the environmental quality of local sheep's milk and cheese supply chains. Furthermore, one of the project scopes is to increase the level of knowledge and awareness of stakeholders and the general public regarding the environmental sustainability of products made from sheep's milk and their contribution to the mitigation of climate change. With this approach, the project expects to achieve the development of a common methodology for analysing the life-cycle of sheep's milk supply chains. This procedure will be used to determine the environmental impact of the sheep's milk business in Sardinia, including the environmental hotspots of the life-cycle of Sardinian Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) sheep's cheese, and will be tested in several cases study (sheep farms and sheep dairy businesses) through the introduction of low-input techniques compatible with maintaining quality standards of products.