Sheep Sustainability Framework (SSF) - established by Sheep Producers Australia (SPA) and WoolProducers Australia (WPA) and supported by Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) and Australian Wool Innovation (AWI)
Climate Impact & Sustainability Data (2023-07 to 2024-06)
Reporting Period: 2023-07 to 2024-06
Environmental Metrics
Total Carbon Emissions:8.94 Mt CO2e
Renewable Energy Share:46.9% of producers generate and use renewable energy
Water Consumption:7.2 kL/tonne HSCW (sheepmeat processing)
Waste Generated:29.8 kg/tonne HSCW (sheepmeat processing)
Carbon Intensity:6.8 kg CO2e/kg LW (sheep raising); 24.4 kg CO2e/kg greasy wool; 364 kg CO2e/tonne HSCW (sheepmeat processing)
ESG Focus Areas
- Animal care and handling
- Animal wellbeing and welfare
- Biosecurity
- Biodiversity
- Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
- Soil health and pasture management
- Water security
- Water quality
- Chemicals
- Safety
- Food safety and quality
- Labour standards, human rights and employment
- Livelihoods
- Adaptation and extreme weather events
- Waste
- Occupational health
- Economic contribution
- Energy
- Feed sourcing
- Access to labour
Environmental Achievements
- Net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated by the sheep industry have generally been declining since 2018.
- Improvements in pain management adoption for most animal husbandry procedures.
Social Achievements
- According to the Global Life Satisfaction Index, sheep graziers are more satisfied with their life than the average Australian.
- Greater alignment with the Australian Beef Sustainability Framework (ABSF) to enable more efficient reporting for multi-species producers.
Governance Achievements
- Four of six existing missing metrics have been addressed with the inclusion of data on biodiversity and the wellbeing of our producers.
- The SSF has created a Digital Data Dashboard aggregating all reporting to date.
Climate Goals & Targets
Medium-term Goals:
- CN30: Achieve carbon neutrality by 2030
Environmental Challenges
- Access to labour, particularly general farm labour, remains an issue for the industry.
- The adoption of basic workplace health and safety practices, such as risk assessments and worker inductions, is relatively low.
- Data challenges made it difficult to provide updates against key industry priorities and indicators, such as the land transport of sheep within Australia.
- Data on the percentage of land identified for conservation purposes is yet to be identified.
- The difference between the pastoral award and national minimum wage has decreased, signifying the agricultural industry may be less attractive to workers.
- The number of sheep transacted through National Saleyard Quality Assurance (NSQA) program accredited saleyards decreased.
Mitigation Strategies
- Initiated National Producer Survey to capture on-farm animal husbandry and environmental practice information.
- Engaged CSIRO to perform the 2022 Environmental Performance Review (EPR) for the red meat processing industry.
- Accessed Australian Bureau of Statistics Agricultural Statistics Program from the 2021 Census to obtain sheep industry-specific demographic data.
- SSF Board and SSG attended training in reporting in reference to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
- Established relationships and shared insights with other industry frameworks (ABSF, AASF).
Supply Chain Management
Climate-Related Risks & Opportunities
Physical Risks
- Droughts, heatwaves, floods, fires
Reporting Standards
Frameworks Used: GRI Standards 2021
UN Sustainable Development Goals
- Goal 2: Zero Hunger
Sustainable food production systems and resilient agricultural practices