New basis for quality production
“Progress through knowledge”: the project LIFE TTGG – The Tough Get Going was born with this perspective: a successful synergy between universities, start-upcompanies, manufacturers, Italian and French training and research Institutions.

The aim is to orientate the development of the dairy sector towards more efficient production,to ensure growth and preserve quality, with an environmental sustainability perspective.

The Product Environmental Footprint, developed by the European Commission, which through Recommendation 2013/179 / EU invites companies to use it to measure, communicate and improve environmental performance in the life cycle of their products, is the methodology used in this project.

An innovative sector
The PDOs Grana Padano (Italy) and Comté (France) have chosen to join the project together with universities and research organizations. A data inventory of all the processes belonging to the supply chain will be set up and used to develop a software tool to support environmental decisions.

At the end of the process, it will be possible to extend the LIFE TTGG model to other PDO cheeses European consortia and further on to several PDO and PGI products, contributing to a substantial reduction of the environmental impact and to an increase of the economic sustainability of the entire agro-food sector.

Needs
Today global warming represents one of the most urgent and severe challenges, the joint commitment of institutions and companies throughout the whole supply chain is essential.

Direct greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural activities related to food production are reported to range between 10-12% of total greenhouse gas emissions worldwide: it’s necessary to take actions as soon as possible to reduce the environmental impact of a significant sector such as the dairy sector.

The greenhouse gas emissions are not the only problem to be tackled. The dairy sector is responsible for other negative environmental effects such as: water resource depletion, freshwater and marine eutrophication, freshwater ecotoxicity, and land use. All the supply chain actors are responsible for limiting these negative effects on the environment.

Hence there is the need to improve the efficiency of PDO cheeses production, by means of a complete and detailed mapping of the environmental impact of the entire supply chain – including consumption and waste management – and the development of more sustainable practises.

LIFE The Tough Get Going (LIFE TTGG)
Conceived with the purpose to improve the efficiency of the entire production chain of European hard and semi-hard PDO cheeses, the LIFE TTGG – The Tough Get Going project aims at design and develop a software (Environmental Decision Support System – EDSS), capable of assessing the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) and encouraging its reduction, allowing the adoption of solutions and techniques to optimize the performance of the entire production cycle.

The involvement of the Grana Padano Protection Consortium and the Comité Interprofessionnel de Gestion du Comté gives the opportunity to test and calibrate the software with two relevant cheese PDOs (The French dairy organization, CNIEL, a project partner, will be responsible to test the software on Comté PDO cheese).

The result will be the creation of a reliable tool and proven methodologies to be proposed to other EU PDO consortia, in the hope they can become a reference for environmental innovation and quality production.