CONO Cheese Makers and Ben & Jerry's are working together in pilot project 'Mootopia'. This project, which starts at fifteen dairy farms in the Netherlands and America, must reduce CO2 emissions at dairy farms to half the sector average by the end of 2024. Reduction measures will be examined and tested in the pilot. Successful components of the pilot can be scaled up in time so that more dairy farmers can make use of these proven techniques and measures.

CONO Kaasmakers is a supplier of Ben & Jerry's. Cream and milk account for more than 50 percent of the total greenhouse gas emissions associated with Ben & Jerry's ice cream. 'Project Mootopia' will work with CONO dairy farmers to use regenerative farming practices and new technologies to contribute to:

• Methane emissions - Methane emissions are reduced through more and better grazing, high quality roughage and innovations that help with digestion.
• Manure - Small-scale digesters and technologies that can replace artificial fertilisers reduce methane emissions and fossil energy use.
• Fodder - The use of regenerative agricultural practices will increase local grass and other fodder crops, maintain healthy soil, increase carbon sequestration, further reduce the use of artificial fertiliser, promote biodiversity and increase the percentage of home-grown fodder.

For fifteen years now, Ben & Jerry's and CONO Cheese Makers have been working together on a joint sustainability programme Caring Dairy, that aims to continuously improve the sustainability of dairy farming. Caring Dairy is now the longest running dairy sustainability programme in the world.

Read here more about Mootopia.