Last week a consortium of leading food retailers, restaurants  and the BRC announced that they would adopt a standard way of calculating the lifetime carbon footprint of their products, utilising the Mondra platform.  We’re proud to say that we’ve been supporting this initiative since the beginning, providing accurate data to make footprinting poultry products a reality.

In 2022, the group needed a poultry business with reliable data to form part of the pilot group. Over the last few years, we’ve been developing and refining our own carbon footprints, covering our own operations, those of our wider supply chain and establishing science-based targets for carbon emission reduction.  Behind the scenes of this project, we’ve been sharing that information to help several retailers and restaurants establish the true carbon footprint of individual products, whether that’s packs on a shelf or items on a menu.

This project will provide the means to monitor, improve and communicate the environmental performance of products, enabling effective measurement and management of Scope 3 emissions. It could also help identify opportunities for the various parts of product supply chains to connect and drive further reductions.  As we know from our own work, we can reduce our own carbon footprint, but bringing down carbon emissions throughout our supply chain requires collaboration and partnership – and that all starts with reliable data.

Given that total emissions from food are estimated to be around 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions, there’s a significant opportunity to make a tangible difference.  Playing a leading role in this project is a great way of putting our own Net Zero plans into action and collaborating on a practical solution.

Sustainability Director, Andrew Brodie, said “Avara is delighted to be part of the BRC Mondra coalition, as taking our carbon footprint data to a product level, whether that’s a product for a retailer or for food service, is a huge step forward in accuracy from where we are today. This greater level of detail creates the opportunity to work with our customers on benchmarking our performance and identifying significant reductions in line with our shared science-based targets and net zero commitment.”

Being chosen as the first poultry business to take part is a testament to our growing reputation as a business that takes sustainability seriously, and is known for accurate, reliable data and intelligent insight.  The depth of our carbon footprinting, including to an individual farm level, and our progress ahead of Science-based targets is pretty unique, and In today’s world, where environmental considerations have never been more important, it sets us apart as a company that people want to work with, and for.