The Week in Charts

Dairy’s pragmatic path

Agriculture
Sustainability

For dairy industry leaders in Europe and the United States, cost management and volume growth are among the top strategic priorities, while they are taking a more pragmatic stance on sustainability, according to McKinsey’s eighth annual dairy survey. Rather than broad environmental, social, and governance narratives, many are focusing on more tangible sustainability initiatives that emphasize cost savings, regulatory compliance, emissions reduction, and operational efficiency, say McKinsey Partners Karl Nilsson, Ludovic Meilhac, and coauthors. Eighty-six percent of European executives cite greenhouse gas reduction or mitigation as a top sustainability priority, compared with 58 percent in the United States.

Across regions, emissions reduction is the primary focus of dairy companies’ sustainability e orts.
Image description. Exhibit comparing the top sustainability and ESG priorities for dairy companies in Europe and the United States based on 2025 surveys. Across both regions, reducing or mitigating greenhouse gas emissions is the leading priority, selected by 86% of European respondents (n = 88) and 58% of US respondents (n = 116). In Europe, the next most-cited priorities are energy (46%) and water usage (46%). In the United States, energy (36%) and packaging (36%) rank second and third. The exhibit uses waffle-style charts to visualize the percentage of respondents selecting each topic as one of their top three sustainability or ESG priorities. Source: EDA Survey 2025 and IDFA Survey 2025. This image description was completed with the assistance of Writer, a gen AI tool. End of image description.

To read the article, see “The dairy industry’s 2026 playbook: Protect margins, pursue growth,” April 20, 2026.