Greenhouse gases

To support pork businesses to calculate their carbon footprint, APL supported the development of the Agricultural Innovation Australia (AIA) Environmental Accounting Platform (EAP), a free, easy-to-use carbon calculator now refined specifically for the Australian pork industry.

The EAP now includes the four main manure management systems, making it easier than ever for piggery operators and their supply chains to input monthly herd data, feed usage, and energy consumption (electricity, fuel, LPG, etc.) to get a clear picture of their emissions.

The calculator delivers a point-in-time carbon footprint, that can be broken down by site, enterprise, or whole farm business, and includes Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. It also highlights which areas contribute most to your footprint, helping producers target areas for improvement.

Although pork only contributes 0.4% to Australia’s overall GHG emissions, the industry sees great opportunity to reduce inputs and minimise its environmental footprint in line with growing community expectations. As such, reducing greenhouse gas emissions from pork production is a major priority for the pork industry.

Terms like ‘carbon footprint’ were born as a means to explain the impact of products and industries, but it can be confusing due to overlapping jargon and the oversimplification of complex processes.

The 'Greenhouse gas emissions and crediting' factsheet has been developed to provide clarity on some of the terms in the environmental space, and also to provide information on how to measure the impact of your farming business.