New guide explains how animal agriculture measures upstream emissions
The Meat Institute has released a new report titled Greenhouse Gas Accounting Emissions Factors Brief to help animal agriculture companies better understand how upstream greenhouse gas emissions are measured and reported.
The report serves as a practical resource for businesses involved in meat and poultry supply chains. It explains how emissions data is developed and encourages companies to ask clearer questions when working with data providers. This guidance supports informed decision making and realistic sustainability planning.
“This report is intended as a practical resource for companies throughout the meat and poultry supply chain to better understand how emissions data are developed, to ask clearer questions of data providers, and to build strategies that reflect their operational realities,” said Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts.
“The report also outlines current knowledge gaps and points to where practical guidance and coordination could help improve alignment throughout the supply chain,” said Potts.
The study is based on surveys, interviews, and industry discussions with meat processors and packers along with expert reviews. It focuses on scope 3 emissions which cover indirect emissions created before products reach processing facilities. These emissions are often the largest and most complex to measure.
The brief highlights how emission factors for beef pork and poultry differ across data sources. Variations occur due to different functional units geographic assumptions and whether land use changes are included. As a result, companies may report very different figures even when using similar data.
Another key finding is that many businesses rely on the same core US studies but apply them differently depending on their sourcing regions of customer demands and reporting requirements. This leads to inconsistency across the supply chain.
The report also notes limited publicly available data for poultry. Most poultry related emissions data currently come from third party tools rather than published research.
Finally, the brief explains how technical choices such as methane modeling methods or the IPCC assessment used can greatly affect reported results. The Meat Institute views this report as a step toward better coordination and improved environmental measurement across animal agriculture.
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