Trends in the environmental impacts of Australian chicken meat production

Summary

This project aims to determine the trend in key environmental impacts across the chicken meat industry in five-year intervals from 2005 to 2025 (at a minimum) and potentially from 1990 pending availability of suitable data. The study will trace the ongoing changes in production efficiency and environmental performance of the industry, demonstrating the progress achieved in this time whilst also identifying where and why counter-trends have occurred. The study will determine the carbon, energy, water, and land footprint (intensity) and absolute scope 1 and 2 emissions. These are likely to follow different trends with intensities decreasing over time, while totals may have increased with industry growth. This will be the first study to quantify and report total chicken meat industry emissions (disaggregated by Scope). These results (historic and recent) will be a key metric for industry as Australian agriculture moves to large-scale reporting of (and expectations of reduction in) sectoral emissions.

The trends analysis will provide valuable and insightful context into the long-term environmental credentials of the industry as it moves towards annual reporting against the industry Sustainability Framework. The findings will be published in the peer-reviewed literature, providing the study with the highest credibility possible. This will help inform the narrative about environmental performance, ensuring that short-term industry performance is understood in the context of its long-term improvement, and aggregate impacts understood in terms of ongoing improvement in efficiency.

Program

Chicken Meat

Research Organisation

Integrity Ag Pty Ltd

Objective Summary

By late 2025, the project team will have determined environmental impacts (intensities and total emissions) for the Australian chicken meat industry between 2005 (at the latest) and 2025, reanalysing past datasets and engaging with industry experts to verify key assumptions and provide historical records. By mid-2026, the findings will be published in the peer-reviewed literature, providing the industry with a robust and publicly available reference to cite, supporting future reporting against the Sustainability Framework.