(Reposted from the Daily Camera, January 9, 2008)

Boulder-based Aurora Organic Dairy on Tuesday announced it is partnering with the University of Michigan to measure and reduce the organic dairy company's impact on the environment.

The newly created nonprofit Aurora Organic Dairy Foundation gave a grant of $320,000 to fund a research partnership with the Center for Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment, Aurora officials said in a statement.

The center is expected to examine Aurora's "entire product lifecycle," such as growing pasture and feed, manufacturing and product distribution, and identify the processes that have the greatest environmental impacts. In the second phase of the partnership, the center is expected to make recommendations to improve Aurora's environmental sustainability, officials said.

The $320,000 grant is the "first of many that will fund continued research into development of organic best practices," Mark Retzloff, Aurora's president and chief operating officer, said in the statement.