Life cycle assessment of two Australian pork supply chains

Abstract

Australia’s primary industries are under increasing environmental, social and economic pressure to measure and reduce resource use and environmental impacts. For the pork industry, major resource and environmental issues are related to water use, energy use (primary energy – PE) and greenhouse gas emissions (measured as global warming potential – GWP). To address this, a project was conducted to assess of water use, PE, and GWP of two Australian pork supply chains using life cycle assessment. One supply chain was located in southern Australia with pigs grown-out in deep-litter sheds. The second supply chain was located in northern Australia, where all pigs were housed in slatted and flushed sheds. The study investigated pork production through to the point of wholesale distribution of carcasses using the functional unit, '1 kilogram of hot standard carcass weight – HSCW'. Primary energy use in the two supply chains varied from 20.3 – 24.5 MJ/kg HSCW and GWP for the two supply chains measured 3.1 and 5.5 kg CO2-eq./kg HSCW. Waste stream emissions were found to be the major contributor to GWP.