Environmental performance review: red meat processing sector 2015

This report continues a series of environmental performance reviews of the Australian red meat processing industry and presents results for the 2013-14 financial year. The methods of data collection and analysis are broadly comparable with previous studies, however also include steps to adjust for variation in animal mix and processes undertaken (i.e. whether rendering was conducted). As such, not all results are directly comparable with those reported in previous studies.

Overall, data collected from survey respondents indicates improvements in all of the six key areas of environmental concern compared with the 2008/2009 survey. Highlights include:

• An improvement in water use efficiency, with average participant performance reaching 8.6 kL/tHSCW processed (cattle equivalent)
• A 27% improvement in energy use efficiency, with an average participant performance of 3,005 MJ/tHSCW processed
• A 22% improvement in GHG emissions intensity, with average participant performance of 432 kg CO2e/tHSCW processed
• Almost 50% reduction in solid waste sent to landfill, with average participant performance of 5.9 kg/tHSCW.