Decreasing Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Meat Products Through Food Waste Reduction. A Framework for a Sustainability Assessment Approach

Abstract

The global food production industry is responsible for producing high levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Along the entire food supply chain (FSC), potential for mitigation exists because approximately one-third of all food globally produced is wasted, equivalent to 1.3 billion tons per year. On a global scale, emissions from livestock production are about 4600–7100 Mt CO₂-eq/year when considered over the whole life cycle. These numbers represent roughly 9.4–14.5% of the total global GHG emissions. In Austria, the livestock sector was responsible for producing about 11.6% of the total GHG emissions in 2012 as a result of the production of about 909,000 t of meat. A high potential for mitigation of GHG emissions from livestock production exists, especially during the farming and production phases. A reduction in meat waste would, in the long-term, directly reduce GHG emissions stemming from livestock production. Two scenarios were considered to assess the GHG mitigation potential of waste from meat production: a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario and a reduction (RED) scenario (assuming a one-third reduction in waste from meat production in Austria). Because food waste is influenced by several phenomena along the FSC, taking an approach such as the life cycle assessment (LCA) offers only a partial solution. By using a Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) approach, researchers can consider social, economic and ecological impacts. It is possible to analyze and compare food waste reduction potentials through the use of such a tool, which can support GHG mitigation efforts in terms of their social, environmental and economic contribution to the livestock and meat processing sector. This approach allowed the identification of indicators that contribute to all sustainability dimensions and support the conclusion that preventing waste from meat processing would save at least 4.8 Mt CO₂-eq emissions per year in Austria, which represented 6% of Austria’s total CO₂-eq emissions in 2012.

Annex: Overview of SIA Indicators and Their Values for Austria for BAU and RED Scenarios

		BAU scenario	RED scenario
Ind01a		Beef/cattle	Pork/pig	Sheep (& goat)	Poultry	Beef/cattle	Pork/pig	Sheep (& goat)	Poultry
	Net national consumption (t)	207,905	491,313	7454	121,515	138,603	327,542	4969	81,010
	kg CO2-eq/kg meat	14.2	6.0	8.4	3.5	14.2	6.0	8.4	3.5
	kg CO2-eq of net consumption	2,952,251,000	2,947,878,000	62,613,600	425,302,500	1,968,162,600	1,965,252,000	41,739,600	283,535,000
	Sum (t CO2-eq)				6,388,045				4,258,690
Ind02b		Soy import (kg)	CO2-eq min (kg/kg of soy product)	CO2-eq max (kg/kg of soy product)		Soy import (kg)	CO2-eq min (kg/kg of soy product)	CO2-eq max (kg/kg of soy product)
	Total soy (meal) feed = 530,000 t (30,000 t from Austria)	500,000,000	0.3	17.8		333,333,333	0.3	17.8
			150,000,000	8,900,000,000			100,000,000	5.933.333.333
	Sum (t CO2-eq)		150,000	8,900,000			100,000	5.933.333
Ind03c		Beef/cattle	Pork/pig	Sheep (& goat)	Poultry	Beef/cattle	Pork/pig	Sheep (& goat)	Poultry
	CH4 emissions from enteric fermentation (t)	79,890	4470	2920	280	53,260	2980	1947	187
	CH4 emissions from manure management (t)	5880	3500	70	1050	3920	2333	47	700
	N2O emissions from manure management (t)	1290	180	80	230	860	120	53	153
	CO2-eq (t)	3,300,600	324,620	125,500	113,760	2,200,400	216,413	83,667	75,840
	Addit. N2O em. (t) to agric. soil	2150				1.433
	Addit. N2O em. (t) to pasture, manures	300				200
	CO2-eq (t)	730,100				486,733
	Sum (t CO2-eq)				4,594,580				3,063,053
Ind04d		Beef/cattle	Pork/pig	Sheep (& goat)	Poultry	Beef/cattle	Pork/pig	Sheep (& goat)	Poultry
	Estimated Austrian water footprint (m³)	208,112,905	531,109,353	3,801,540	94,781,700	138,742,604	354,072,902	2,534,190	63,187,800
	CO2-eq (t)	170,652	435,509	3117	77,721	113,769	290,340	2078	51,814
	Sum (t CO2-eq)				686,999				458,001
Ind05e, g		Beef/cattle	Pork/pig	Sheep (& goat)	Poultry	Beef/cattle	Pork/pig	Sheep (& goat)	Poultry
	Average total waste water (l)	2,156,491,489	2,487,323,964	98,134,466	6,134,542,018	1,437,660,993	1,658,215,976	65,422,977	4,089,694,679
	CO2-eq (t)	1768	2040	80	5030	1179	1360	54	3354
	Sum (t CO2-eq)				8919				5946
Ind06f		Beef/cattle	Pork/pig	Sheep (& goat)	Poultry	Beef/cattle	Pork/pig	Sheep (& goat)	Poultry
	MJ of total meat production (average value)	8,939,915,000	12,774,138,000	No data	2,673,330,000	5,959,929,000	8,516,092,000	No data	1782.220,0000
	kWh	2,483,309,722	3,548,371,667	No data	742,591,667	1,655,535,833	2,365,581,111	No data	495,061,111
	CO2-eq (t)	908,891	1,298,704	No data	271,789	605,926	865,803	No data	181,192
	Sum (t CO2-eq)				2,479,384				1,652,921.79

1. ^aLeip et al. (2010) and Statistik Austria (2013, 2014a)
2. ^bCastanheira and Freire (2013), Global 2000 (n.d.) and WWF (2014)
3. ^cUmweltbundesamt (2014a)
4. ^dMekonnen and Hoekstra (2012), Stadtwerke Karlsruhe (2014) and Statistik Austria (2013, 2014a)
5. ^eEuropean Commission (2005), Stadtwerke Karlsruhe (2014) and Statistik Austria (2014a)
6. ^fde Vries and de Boer (2010), Statistik Austria (2014a) and Umweltbundesamt (2014b)
7. ^gEutrophication potential included in Ind01