The overall objective of this project, as a sequence of two Master's Projects, is to provide the Aurora leadership team with a framework and the tools necessary to measure and improve their own sustainability performance.  This project, as the first of two phases, will focus on two main goals.  The first goal is to develop an energy and carbon footprint for the milk life cycle system (from growing the feed to distributing the packaged milk products).  This footprint will be used to highlight the greatest contributors, benchmark improvements in the future, and as a comparison with other dairy systems.  The second goal is to evaluate and identify strategies for improvement.  The processes with the greatest impacts will be targeted and a list of improvement options compiled.  These options will then be screened based on environmental and financial factors, and more detailed assessments of a prioritized set of strategies will be completed.