The global vision of the SUSMILK project involves redesigning the dairy industry in three key processing areas, heating, refrigeration, and pretreatment, reducing, and in some cases eliminating, energy and transport costs with the aim of creating a more sustainable milk processing industry. The project also concentrates on closing the circle in terms of waste treatment.

A variety of new technologies and initiatives for the more efficient use of resources in the milk treatment and processing industry were on offer throughout the Susmilk Final Conference, which took place in Santiago De Compostela 22-23 on the September 2016.

Among them was the  LIFE+ Integral Carbon project which presented a poster on the advances made in reducing the carbon footprint of the milk processing industry. The poster was entitled "Algae production: circular economy in the dairy sector. Carbon footprint mitigation of a cheese factory by implementing Life+ Integral Carbon Project", (see image).

The conference was led by several experts and business people in the field notably, Brian Lindsay (GDAA), and Piercristiano Brazzale (Brazzale Spa y Orrero) who spoke of the urgency of a global initiative towards sustainability, where the dairy industry currently plays a key role, and where producers can meet consumer demand through improvements in processing such as, the auto generation of energy in situ, the concentartion of whey by osmosis, water purification, and improved product handling in general throughout the value chain.  The innovations developed not only increase environmental sustainability but also provide significant economic benefits, improving overall business competitivity.

Also on presentation were a number of projects providing sustainable methods of reducing water and energy consumption in the dairy industry, e.g. ENREMILK and ENTHALPHY.  These projects were developed by the Fraunhober institute for IGB (Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology), and IRTA respectively.  The conference concluded with three parallel sessions related to the key areas of development of the SUSMILK initiative: (i) heating and refrigeration technology, (ii) production technology, and (iii) simulation and analysis, which offers a wide range of possibilities for the mangement of resources and energy savings through improved decision making.