CANBERRA—Australia's big food companies say they're doing their bit to save the planet, by leading the charge on sustainable industry practices.
But they also admit they'll need to lift their game even further to help solve some of the globe's environmental challenges, including climate change and food shortages.
A new report by the Australian Food and Grocery Council, which represents some of the country's biggest corporations, shows the steps they've been taking to reduce their carbon footprint.
The Towards Sustainability survey also shows just how big that footprint is.
As Australia's largest manufacturing sector, the food and grocery industry accounts for two per cent of the country's greenhouse gas emissions, one per cent of water use and consumed 21,455,800 gigajoules of energy in the financial year ending 2008.
Companies such as Coca-Cola, Kraft, Foster's and Kellogg's have acknowledged they need a fundamental shift in how things are done if they're to meet sustainability targets.
Kraft, for example, is tackling targets to reduce wastewater use by over 65 per cent by the end of this year and lower energy consumption by 52 per cent.
Kellogg's has successfully diverted 95 per cent of its waste from its Botany production site to recycling rather than landfill.
National Foods was reducing its energy consumption through multiple measures, while Foster's has produced a beer that is 100 per cent carbon offset.
These were some of the ways big companies had stepped up to the challenge of long-term viability and sustainability, the council's chief executive Kate Carnell told Sky News.
But she wants more of Australia's big food corporations to measure their sustainability practices using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework.
"The first stage of this is to measure what you are doing and 60 per cent are at the moment, but we can do better than that," she said.
"If you don't measure, you can't improve."
The report was a good way of allowing companies to learn innovative sustainability practices from one another and adopt them, Ms Carnell said.
"So that companies that aren't doing it at the moment can see companies that are doing it well and see what's possible in their particular part of manufacturing," she said.
The report also showed the council's members were sending 74 per cent of waste to recycling rather than landfill.
Maintaining sustainable and ethical practices lasted throughout the food cycle, from growth to the disposal of food packaging, Ms Carnell believes.
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