Building a sustainable large-scale dairy value chain – Insights from NOVA Dairy

Sterling Agro Industries Ltd. is an Indian dairy company with over 30 years of experience, marketing products under the ‘Nova’ and ‘A-One’ brands. It exports to 33+ countries and supplies major institutions like Indian Railways, Nestlé, ITC, and Air India. The company operates three certified plants in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh.

Sterling Agro Industries has been integrating sustainability into its operations to address environmental challenges while supporting rural communities. In this interview with Cleantech Hero, Ravin Saluja – Director of Sterling Agro Industries Limited, shares insights into the company’s renewable energy adoption, sustainable dairy practices, and future plans for building a climate-resilient dairy value chain.

1. What motivated NOVA Dairy to adopt sustainability practices across its operations?

With the dairy industry closely linked to environmental resources and rural livelihoods, NOVA recognised early the need to future-proof its operations. The drive stemmed from a vision to build a climate-resilient dairy ecosystem that aligns with global environmental goals while supporting the socio-economic upliftment of rural communities. This meant integrating sustainability directly into business strategy, beyond traditional CSR, to ensure efficiency, resilience, and environmental responsibility across the value chain.

2. How much of your total energy use is currently powered by wind and solar sources?

Currently, NOVA Dairy sources a significant share of its operational energy from renewable sources, with a combined installed capacity of 123.3 MWH:

• Wind Power: 88.3 MWh (off-site)

• Solar Power: 35 MWh (installed across the factory and milk chilling centres)

• At the Malanpur Manufacturing Unit alone, a 1.5 MWh solar power plant helps meet a substantial portion of the facility’s daily energy requirements.

This renewable energy portfolio plays a critical role in reducing the company’s overall carbon footprint and moving toward energy independence.

What impact have the solar water heating systems had at your rural milk chilling centers?

The deployment of solar water heating systems at rural milk chilling centers has delivered measurable environmental and operational benefits. These systems are primarily used for Clean-In-Place (CIP) processes, which are traditionally energy-intensive when powered by diesel burners or electric heaters. By switching to solar-powered water heating, NOVA has achieved:

• Significant reductions in electricity and fuel consumption

• Lower operating costs

• Tangible reductions in the carbon footprint associated with milk processing

This intervention is a key example of how renewable technologies can enhance both sustainability and cost-efficiency in remote rural settings.

4. Can you highlight key outcomes from the Sustainable Dairy Programme with Nestlé and Unilever?

Through the Sustainable Dairy Programme (SDP) in collaboration with Nestlé and Unilever, NOVA has piloted innovative climate-smart dairy practices across farms in Fatehabad and Morena, engaging seven smallholder farms and approximately 175 animals. Key outcomes include:

• Methane capture via biodigesters, turning waste into usable biogas while reducing emissions

• Open housing systems that promote animal welfare and lower confinement-related stress and emissions

• Feed optimisation and genetic improvements, increasing milk yield per animal and reducing emissions per litre of milk

• Improved reproductive health through artificial insemination and pregnancy monitoring, reducing input-resource intensity per productive cycle

Using the Cool Farm Tool, NOVA’s Life Cycle Assessment has confirmed that these interventions lead to a more sustainable, lower-emission milk production system, demonstrating that dairy, when responsibly managed, can deliver high nutrition with a comparatively low carbon impact.

5. How do biodigesters at the farm level contribute to emission reduction?

Farm-level biodigesters represent a powerful tool in NOVA’s sustainability playbook. They address one of the major GHG sources in dairy, methane from manure. By capturing and converting this methane into biogas, farmers can use it for cooking or heating, replacing more polluting fuels like firewood or LPG. The system not only reduces direct methane emissions but also yields nutrient-rich organic slurry, which is used as a natural fertiliser, enhancing soil health and closing the nutrient loop. Overall, these biodigesters are low-cost, high-impact solutions for emission mitigation and circular resource use at the grassroots.

6. What does your Life Cycle Assessment reveal about the carbon footprint of NOVA’s dairy products?

NOVA Dairy’s Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), conducted using the Cool Farm Tool, reveals that while dairy production does have environmental impacts, particularly from livestock emissions, it also offers high nutritional density per unit of carbon emitted. The LCA indicates that NOVA’s climate-smart interventions are actively lowering GHG emissions across the value chain. Practices such as efficient manure management, renewable energy use, and improved animal productivity contribute to lower emissions per litre of milk. These insights are helping NOVA target its efforts more precisely and transparently communicate its progress to stakeholders.

7. What are NOVA Dairy’s future plans for expanding its green initiatives?

NOVA Dairy is actively building a roadmap to deepen and scale its sustainability footprint. Key future initiatives include:

• Expanding renewable energy infrastructure, particularly solar capacity at both production and chilling sites

• Broadening the adoption of biodigesters across a larger base of smallholder farms to scale the methane reduction impact

• Extending Sustainable Dairy Program learnings to additional regions and farmer clusters

• Investing in water stewardship initiatives to optimise usage and conservation across operations

• Piloting regenerative agricultural practices, including soil health management and low-input fodder cultivation

With these initiatives, NOVA Dairy aims to not only reduce its environmental footprint but also build a more inclusive, climate-resilient supply chain that benefits farmers, consumers, and the planet.

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