Beyond emissions: sustainable transition in the Parmigiano Reggiano supply chain through animal health, economic analysis and LCA tool comparison

The livestock sector is under growing pressure from consumers and policymakers to reduce its environmental footprint through greenhouse gas emission mitigation, improved resource-use efficiency, and enhanced animal health and welfare. Despite these expectations, practical tools able to support dairy farms in achieving a credible sustainability transition remain scarce. This study pursued three main objectives. First, it aimed to evaluate whether an animal welfare improvement strategy — namely the management of hoof disorders through the implementation of a dedicated management protocol — could enhance the environmental and economic performance of dairy farms. Second, it investigated whether the improvements achieved could be detected by different Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tools and assessed the sensitivity of these tools in capturing such changes. Finally, the study explored whether consumers, the primary drivers of sustainability-related changes within the supply chain, are aware of how their expectations affect farm-level practices and whether they are willing to recognise these efforts in the marketplace. The implementation of the hoof health protocol led to a significant reduction in severe foot lesions (p<0.05), improved herd performance and a better environmental profile at farm level. The LCA tool comparison revealed strong ranking concordance between Agrecalc and CAP'2ER (R~s~ = 1.000 on total emissions), with an acceptable systematic bias on GHG intensity (+5.3%), though limits of agreement were wide enough to preclude interchangeability at the single-farm level — a relevant finding for PDO certification systems. Consumer analysis identified three distinct profiles: traditional (15%), informed (39%) and value-and-quality-oriented consumers (46%), which showed the highest active willingness to pay, with a premium price of +€1.85/kg for an environmental trade-off. These findings collectively demonstrate that sustainability in dairy farming is not only an environmental obligation but a tangible economic opportunity, provided that farms are properly guided and equipped with tailored assessment tools.