Impact in Depth

In 2025, with support from our regional utility provider, Eversource, and the Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center (NE-DBIC), Cabot completed a project that resulted in water and energy savings. This project transitioned a key piece of dairy processing machinery from natural gas to electric power at our West Springfield plant. In 2022, we needed to rely on natural gas to dry our dairy powder. Eversource approached Cabot with the opportunity to transition to alternative machinery, which runs on electricity instead of natural gas. This machinery, called a Mechanical Vapor Recompression system (MVR), is a highly efficient industrial evaporator which is used in the production of condensed and powdered milk products. By recompressing the evaporated milk vapor in the system for steam, Cabot saves approximately 6,000,000 gallons of water per year-the equivalent of more than 350 in-ground pools.    
    
In addition to an increase in machine capability, the transition from natural gas to electric power made the machine significantly more efficient. After accounting for the increase in electricity use, we are pleased to share that this change has resulted in more than 800,000 therms of natural gas saved per year. This is the equivalent of heating more than 850 homes in the Northeast each year over the course of the next 20 years. With the addition of the new MVR, we have also reduced our use of other systems within the operation, resulting in further energy savings.  Cabot is grateful to Eversource and the NE-DBIC for their support, vision, and partnership with this project.  

Our dairy farmers are proud stewards of the land and understand that healthy soil helps grow high-quality crops. To maintain soil health, farms utilize soil conservation techniques like cover cropping, crop rotation, and no-till planting to support their ecosystem and grow quality feed. These three processes contribute to overall soil health and a healthier and more robust crop yield. 

• Cover crops like winter rye and triticale are planted in the late summer or early fall to strengthen and preserve soil, reduce surface erosion, add nutrients, and provide weed control during the off season. 

• Crop rotation helps the soil maintain an appropriate amount of nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium and helps to mitigate pest cycles through crop diversification. Each plant interacts differently with the soil, which is why crop rotation helps to balance nutrients in the soil. 

• No-till planting takes the seed and, instead of plowing the soil and digging a small hole, plants the seed directly into the ground with minimal soil disturbance. In addition to reduced moisture loss, no-till planting reduces erosion and improves soil health. 

As the main ingredient in our products, we care a lot about milk and know it contributes directly to our product quality and consistency. In 2025, the co-op was proud to award 126 Milk Quality Awards to members. These Milk Quality Award Winners are members who achieve our highest tier of milk quality in the co-op for a given year.  This threshold is extremely high and reflects our farms' commitment to food safety and herd health.