Objectives of the service
Dairy companies face growing pressure to report on the sustainability of their supply chains, but verified, auditable data is hard to come by. Current reporting relies heavily on self-declared farm data, which auditors, regulators, and investors are increasingly unwilling to accept. Meanwhile, farmers spend significant time manually filling in sustainability records that cooperatives and regulators require.
The objective of the MilkyWay project is to close this gap. Using Earth Observation data, the project aims to develop a service that automatically detects field management activities across farm parcels and translates these into pre-filled sustainability reporting templates — giving dairy companies independently verified, audit-ready data while taking the administrative burden off farmers.
MilkyWay is being developed in collaboration with partners in the Dutch dairy sector, with plans to expand across the European market.
Users and their needs
MilkyWay primarily targets Dutch dairy companies and cooperatives, who face mandatory sustainability reporting obligations for their supply chains under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) from 2025. As the main customers of the platform, they need independently verified, field-level sustainability data to fulfil legal disclosure requirements and benchmark environmental performance across their farmer networks.
Three further groups will benefit from the service:
- Dairy farmers need a way to meet growing reporting requirements from cooperatives and regulators without the burden of manual data collection
- Sustainability auditors and accountants need a certified, technically defensible data source to assess and sign off corporate sustainability disclosures
- Financial institutions need farm-level environmental risk data to support sustainability-linked lending and investment decisions
The key challenge across all groups is the same: independently verified, field-level sustainability data simply does not exist at supply chain scale. For the project, the main challenges are generating data that is accurate and auditable enough to meet regulatory and professional standards and building trust among all user groups in a new, satellite-based approach to sustainability reporting.
Targeted countries: the Netherlands as the primary market, with potential to expand to other EU dairy-producing countries as CSRD adoption broadens.
Service/ system concept
MilkyWay draws on three complementary satellite data streams: radar and multispectral imagery from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites, very high-resolution commercial satellite imagery, and satellite-informed climate data underpinning farm-level physical risk assessments.
The near-weekly revisit frequency of the Sentinel satellites enables continuous, objective monitoring of field management activities at individual parcel level at a scale and cost that ground-based monitoring alone cannot match. Satellite-derived observations are validated against ground truth data collected from farm parcels, ensuring the accuracy and auditability of the outputs.
By combining multiple satellite data streams into dairy-sector-specific, audit-ready outputs, MilkyWay delivers independently verified sustainability data that feeds directly into established reporting frameworks, going beyond what generic, global-scale Earth Observation services offer.
Space Added Value
MilkyWay draws on three complementary satellite data streams. Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites provide the core data layer, delivering radar and multispectral imagery across dairy farmland on a near-weekly basis. This continuous revisit frequency enables reliable detection of field management activities at individual parcel level. Very high-resolution commercial satellite imagery adds a second observation layer, enabling more detailed field-level analysis. A third stream draws on satellite-informed climate data, underpinning farm-level physical risk assessments covering flood exposure, drought stress, and water availability.
Satellite-derived data is validated against ground truth data collected from farm parcels, ensuring the accuracy and auditability of the outputs. This combination of independent satellite observation and ground truth validation is what makes the data defensible for regulatory and audit purposes — something self-declared farm records alone cannot provide.
What sets MilkyWay apart is not the use of satellite data alone, but the way multiple data streams are combined into dairy-sector-specific, audit-ready outputs that feed directly into established reporting frameworks, i.e. something generic, global-scale Earth Observation services do not offer.
Current Status
The MilkyWay feasibility study is currently underway, with the project having reached its ESA midterm review. Ten structured stakeholder interviews have been completed across the Dutch dairy sector, engaging dairy cooperatives, sector organisations, sustainability auditors, and retailers. Key findings confirm strong interest in independently verified, field-level sustainability data and in the automated pre-filling of sustainability reporting templates.
On the technical side, the core satellite-based event detection pipeline has been validated and is operational in real-world conditions across multiple countries.
Upcoming activities focus on further validating business model assumptions with potential customers. The team will attend Reuters Events: Transform Food & Agriculture Europe 2026 in Amsterdam to conduct targeted customer interviews with senior food and agriculture leaders. Broader engagement with key players in the Dutch dairy sector is also ongoing.
Prime Contractor(s)
Subcontractor(s)
