Great food starts long before it reaches your kitchen and understanding that journey matters more than ever if sustainability is on your agenda. So when Nestlé and First Milk invited our Transformation and Social Value Manager, Santosh Salunkhe, to visit Dolphenby Farm in Cumbria, we saw it as a chance to learn more about our supply chain – and bring some useful nuggets back for our customers.
Dolphenby Farm is part of the Nestlé Milk Plan through First Milk, a Certified B Corporation and King’s Award for Enterprise winner. The visit gave Santosh a firsthand look at how regenerative farming principles are being applied in a real, commercial dairy business.
We asked Santosh to give his top 3 take-aways from the visit, and what you should know about embedding sustainability in your own organisation…
Regenerative farming runs on data, not just tradition
“It’s easy to picture regenerative farming as a return to old-fashioned methods. It isn’t. What I saw at Dolphenby was decisions backed by data, digital tools and continuous monitoring – from optimising grazing patterns to improving grass utilisation.
“This is forward-thinking farming building long-term resilience, not a step backwards.”
Sustainability is a team sport!
“No single organisation hits its sustainability goals alone. Progress depends on collaboration across the whole food supply chain – producers, manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers and customers. Engaging with partners means we can share knowledge, learn from best practice and find ways to improve together, which strengthens supply chain resilience and supports our shared ambitions around Net Zero.
“For a wholesaler like us, the bulk of our carbon footprint sits upstream and downstream in our supply chain – not in our own depots or fleet. Scope 3 emissions can’t be tackled in isolation; they only shift when producers, manufacturers, distributors and customers work to the same goal. That’s why we want to work more closely across our entire supply chain to get there.
“For Dunsters Farm, these insights feed straight into how we work with suppliers, customers and stakeholders. Whether we’re talking carbon reduction, biodiversity, responsible sourcing or innovation, understanding different perspectives helps us make better decisions and keep improving how we operate.
“It’s about always collaborating, looping back, and refining what we do – meaningful environmental progress comes from practical, everyday actions and continual learning, not a single initiative you tick off a list.”
Seeing is believing
“Sustainability can feel like a topic confined to reports and slide decks. Standing on that farm and seeing the practices in action brought it to life.
“Hearing directly how data supports grazing decisions, how biodiversity is measured and protected, and how farming systems keep evolving challenged some of my own assumptions about modern agriculture.
“It reinforced something important: sustainability isn’t a project with an end date. It’s an ongoing process of adaptation, innovation and improvement – and it depends on real engagement with the people further up your supply chain.”
We’d like to thank the teams at Nestlé, First Milk and everyone at Dolphenby Farm for their warm welcome, openness and willingness to share their expertise. Their passion and commitment to sustainable farming made this a genuinely insightful and inspiring visit.
Want to talk sustainability? If responsible sourcing or supply chain resilience are on your agenda, speak to your Business Development Manager. They can talk you through what we offer over and above your food delivery – from training your team through Carbon Literacy to supporting your wider sustainability journey.
