NAPCo Carbon Neutral Beef Project | Meat & Livestock Australia

Integrity Ag & Env. congratulates NAPCO on achieving an Australian landmark, producing the first certified carbon neutral beef in the country! Our work with NAPCO on this important project to map the carbon footprint of the whole operation from breeding through to the feedlot was a great exercise in collaboration: assessing herd productivity and GHG emissions from all sources, both on and off-farm alongside NAPCO’s staff. With many years of industry level research in the area of life cycle assessment (LCA) behind this project (see our publications and projects list if you want to know more!), it was exciting to see this work move into the commercial sector, opening the way for a major cattle company to brand their product and gain recognition for their leadership in this space. One thing we discovered working with NAPCO was their attention to detail and genuine plan to reduce environmental impacts while continuing to build on the proud history of beef production. At the core of this project was a fully audited carbon footprint of the whole operation. This involves collating information from across the company: energy purchases, feed and fodder inputs, transport, fertiliser use, and most importantly, fully detailed information tracking livestock production (numbers, weights, growth rates and reproductive status) over three years of company records. At the feedlot, this also included a detailed assessment of manure management and related GHG emissions. We applied customised methods to deliver the most robust result, built on research such as the work by Dr Matt Redding at QDAF on manure emissions from feedlot pads, supported over the years by ALFA and the MLA feedlot research program. This research has been instrumental in showing that lot feeding can produce beef at lower emissions intensities than slow-growth grass finishing, because of the high growth rates that can be achieved through a short feeding period on grain. All in all, we’re very pleased to see a commercial company take a bold step forward, utilising the extensive work that the red meat industry, through MLA, has done to understand GHG emission sources and carbon footprinting over the past decade. We hope to see more to come as industry works towards CN30!

If you’d like to know more about carbon footprinting or going carbon neutral for any agri-food supply chain feel free to reach out! Our team has unparalleled expertise after more than a decade of ground breaking research across major agri-commodities in Australia and internationally. To read more details about this in a recent article in Queensland Country Life click here.

Comparative analysis of wool and other fibres in LCA | Australian Wool Innovation

Sustainable development of the textile industry requires a sustainable supply of environmentally friendly raw materials. There has been growing interest internationally in assessing and comparing textile fibres to determine the most sustainable fabrics and to enable a reduction in the overall environmental impacts of the textile industry. Comparisons are theoretically possible if all influencing factors can be assessed. However, concerns exist with the current assessment of renewable and non-renewable textiles, because there is a fundamental difference in the system boundary for each production system. Particularly, synthetic fibres made from fossil fuels often do not include the biological production processes involved in monomers formation, while natural/renewable fibres do include the primary production processes which required to generate the raw materials.

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This project aims to review the existing methodology assessments in textiles LCAs studies for synthetic and natural fibres, and to develop a new method to assess the renewability of textiles fibres. The outcome of the project will be peer-review publications focus on 1) methodology assessments review of synthetic textiles and issues affecting monomer formation in textile fibres, 2) a scoping analysis that aims to develop new methods for handling the “cost of monomer formation” for synthetic materials, 3) a scoping analysis comparing common synthetic fibres with natural fibres using both attributional LCA (aLCA) and contributional LCA (cLCA) approach, 4) an alternative “renewability indicator” to assess comparably the environmental impacts of synthetic and natural fibres.

The project will complete in November 2020.

Fresh Litter Supply, Management & Spent Litter Utilisation | Agrifutures

This project covers four objectives regarding litter supply and litter utilisation: 1. Current situation analysis of litter types and availability, to provide information on litter use trends. 2. Review potential new sources of litter that meet industry requirements for bird health, performance and welfare. 3. Review management options that reduce volume of litter required. 4. Consider options for spent litter management and/or disposal associated with changed litter type or management| For more information contact us HERE, or click HERE for more details.

Soil Sustainability Indicator Guideline| Australian Pork Ltd

Recently completed for the pork industry, this work developed new, specialist guidelines for interpreting soil and water tests for the pig industry, handling issues such as nutrient deficiency and excess, salinity, sodicity and organic matter levels for productive pastures and crops grown with effluent or manure. For more details click HERE.

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Environmental Impacts of Expanding Wool Production (cLCA) | Australian Wool Innovation

The world needs good quality, renewable fibre for clothing production. The wool industry is now in an expansion phase, driven by good returns from wool and lamb production. This landmark study is currently investigating the environmental impact of producing more wool garments compared to alternatives, and will deliver findings in 2019. We’ll keep you posted on our first publication, which is currently in review.

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Environmental Impacts of Expanding Wool Production (cLCA) | Australian Wool Innovation

Environmental Impacts of Expanding Wool Production (cLCA) | Australian Wool Innovation

Egg Industry Environmental Guideline | Australian Eggs Ltd

Recently completed for the egg industry, this guideline is a complete revision of the guideline, incorporating new science for free range nutrient management and odour estimation from egg production facilities nation wide. If you’re doing a development contact us HERE. To read/download the guideline click HERE.

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Animal Effluent Management ERF Method Development | Federal Dept. of Environment & Energy

This ongoing project will develop a new ERF method for pig and dairy effluent management, allowing more flexibility in how these operations generate Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs). If you’re interested in producing a new revenue stream from carbon, contact us HERE.

Cradle to Grave LCA of the Australian Wool Supply Chain | Australian Wool Innovation

Commissioned by the wool industry to understand their environmental impacts from the farm to the consumer and beyond, this study is the most extensive of it’s type in the world and provides leading knowledge to all sectors of the global wool industry. Working with leading experts in Australia, China, India and Europe, Integrity Ag is looking forward to publishing this study in 2019.

Environmental Impacts of Changing Cotton Production (cLCA) | Cotton Research & Development Corporation

Cotton is a global benchmark fibre, and Australia is a major producer of high quality fibre. The industry has commissioned this research to determine what the environmental impact of the textile industry would be in Australian production increased of declined. Due for completion in 2020.

Environmental Impacts of Changing Cotton Production (cLCA) | Cotton Research & Development Corporation

Nutrient Distribution on Free Range Egg Farms | Australian Eggs Ltd

Free range farms now represent almost 50% of egg production in Australia, but with this expansion has come a range of knowledge gaps around environmental performance. Integrity Ag in partnership with Queensland DAF completed a land-mark publication quantifying nutrient distribution on free range farms and management strategies for reducing impacts. To read more click HERE.

Streamlined Planning & Development in the Chicken Meat Industry | Agrifutures

Planning and development in the meat chicken industry is a challenge, with different rules used in every different state, and even in some local council areas. Through surveys and workshops, this project has distilled the key issues and proposed solutions that aim to reduce costs, time and complexity involved in developing a new meat chicken farm in any part of Australia. Click HERE for details.

Environmental Guidelines for the Meat Chicken Industry | Agrifutures

A key need for the chicken meat industry is a set of agreed guidelines for establishing new farms and operating existing farms, to minimise environmental impacts. This project will develop the first set of National Guidelines for this industry, due for release in 2020.

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Environmental Guidelines for the Meat Chicken Industry | Agrifutures

Odour from Egg Production | Australian Eggs Limited

This recently completed project delivered an industry specific S-Factor formula for the egg industry, allowing a simplified approach to determining potential odour impacts from new or expanded egg farms. Want to know more about odour assessment from intensive livestock facilities? Click HERE.

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Low Emission Future of Pork | Pork CRC

Pork consumption in Australia has risen steadily over the last decade, and major technology advances such as adoption of biogas have taken place? Our recent research for the pork CRC showed these changes have resulted in substantially lower impacts for expanding pork production in Australia. Learn more HERE.

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Trends in Environmental Impacts & Efficiency in the Pork Industry |Australian Pork Limited

The pig industry has made significant improvements in production efficiency and environmental management in the past 30 years, but wanted to understand how has this had affected key metrics such as water and energy use, or the carbon footprint of pork. Building on the benchmarking research completed for the industry over the last decade, Integrity Ag and Environment was able to answer this important question with an industry funded LCA study. Results and publications have been released. For more information please contact us here​.

Water Purification Technology using BCE | Australian Pork Limited

This novel project is investigating technology that will sterilise piggery effluent streams at lower cost than traditional strategies. It’s true blue sky research being conducted by SciTek Consulting and the University of NSW in conjunction with Integrity Ag. Stay tuned for research results in late 2018 and 2019.

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35-year Beef Trends LCA Study | Meat & Livestock Australia

The red meat industry aims to track environmental performance (water, energy, GHG) from the beef herd over time to report performance to consumers under the industry Sustainability Framework. This key project defined impacts across the whole nation using an LCA approach, and was completed in 2019. For more information please contact us here.

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