Industry environmental sustainability review 2010

Context of the Study

The five-year period since the 2003 Environmental Performance Review (EPR), was one of major impacts on the red meat processing (RMP) sector. Major influences and drivers impacting the sector in this period included:

Drought - One of the most severe and long lasting droughts was experienced in Australia during 2003-2008, especially in Queensland and northern NSW. The red meat processing facilities responsible for the bulk of Australian production are located in these drought affected areas, which affected the total production of the RMP sector for a number of years. The results of this Environmental Sustainability Review (ESR) covers the period 2008-2009 financial year, when production was close to average production throughput.

Water restrictions - As a direct result of the drought, mandatory and voluntary water reductions were introduced across Australia. For example: Victoria introduced Environment and Resource Efficiency Plans (EREP) for industries using more than 120 ML/year water; NSW introduced Water and Energy Savings Action Plans; and Queensland instituted the Queensland Water Commission which required Water Efficiency Management Plans and a 25% water reduction or operation at world best practice water consumption in the SE QLD area for industrial facilities. The enormous pressure on water usage resulted in RMP plants responding to the challenge and reducing water consumption.

Global Financial Crisis (GFC) - The GFC began late in 2007 and continued through 2008. The impact on the export RMP sector and associated industries, including leather, was severe and continues.

Environmental legislation - New state and federal legislation was introduced, targeting energy efficiency initiatives and associated greenhouse gas emissions. This included the Energy Efficiency Opportunities (EEO) Act which focussed on the larger companies in the sector; the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting scheme, and a number of State-based schemes such as EREP in Victoria for sites using over 100 TJ/year energy and Water and Energy Savings Action Plans in NSW.

Carbon tax - The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) was proposed during 2008 with release of the draft legislation in early 2009. The modelled impacts on the RMP sector and the upstream livestock operations were substantial and the RMP industry was involved in negotiations with the government.

Rising fuel costs - The rising cost of electricity and fuels has had, and will continue to have, an influence on energy usage and efficiency.

Increased community focus - Local communities tend to become more educated on environmental issues and to scrutinise the performance of industry. Transparency of environmental performance is being demanded of individual plants as well as the industry as a whole. This Environmental Sustainability Report seeks to address some of those concerns.

Closer neighbours - In some areas, there have been population increases in regional areas where processing plants are typically sited, which increased encroachment on many facilities. This may result in more frequent odour and/or noise complaints.

Background

Environmental Performance Reviews (EPR) were conducted at up to ten medium to large integrated red meat industry plants in 1998 and 2003. The EPRs determined a number of environmental metrics and allowed the red meat industry to benchmark its performance against Key Performance Indicators (KPI).

There have been many positive developments in the red meat processing industry since the 2003 study including:

• improved collection, collation, verification and reporting of environmental data
• plant upgrades or new plants incorporating cleaner production principles
• better utilisation and increased energy and water use efficiency at processing plants
• improvements in technology
• new studies and research conducted by the industry, which has resulted in environmental improvements

This Industry Environmental Sustainability Review is the third in the series. It aims to quantitatively assess how the red meat industry has improved environmental performance in recent years, allow processors to assess how changed practices and facilities have resulted in better performance since the previous study, allow comparison against objective industry performance data and allow external stakeholders to objectively assess how the industry as a whole has improved and demonstrated continual improvement in environmental sustainability.

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