South Australian food and beverage industry to lead net zero trial

Siemens, in association with Food South Australia (Food SA), is seeking a South Australian food and beverage company to trial SiGreen, a tool that enables companies to track and manage verifiable Product Carbon Footprints (PCF) across their supply chains while maintaining full data sovereignty.

Susan Close, South Australian Deputy Premier, said businesses in the state know what needs to be done to reduce emissions but can find the process of tracking emissions difficult.

“Supporting our strong-performing food manufacturing sector to identify, track and reduce their carbon footprint will be critical to South Australia’s future economic and environmental sustainability,” Close said.

Siemens ANZ CEO Peter Halliday said most companies don’t realise that commitment to net zero is a commitment to measuring, tracking and reducing scope 3 emissions.

“Put simply, our industries need to accelerate their efforts and capabilities around net zero or they risk being locked out of critical local and global supply chains,” Halliday said.

The chosen company should have the opportunity to engage with its supply chain on a product level and quantify the CO₂ contribution of individual components and suppliers, enabling a cross-company effort towards decarbonisation and net zero targets.

SiGreen will assist the company in replacing highly manual processes, exchanging emission data along the supply chain and combining it with data from its own value creation to obtain a product’s true carbon footprint.

The pilot will be facilitated by Food SA.

Catherine Sayer, Food SA CEO, welcomed the initiative and said it would be pivotal in shaping discussions around net zero in the industry.

“This pilot will not only give a company the opportunity to obtain a product’s true carbon footprint in each manufacturing process and support companies in tracking their product carbon footprint but also help validate current and future emissions against their set goals. The F&B sector in South Australia is worth over $11 billion — and we are working towards getting the right systems in place to make it more sustainable for future generations,” Sayer said.

By using technologies such as industrial peripheral computing, SiGreen makes it possible to exchange emission data along the supply chain, from raw materials right through to the end product.

The first step for interested companies is to register to participate at Food SA’s special industry briefing on 4 May 2023. Registrations can be made via this link: https://www.foodsouthaustralia.com.au/resources-programs/industry-resources-programs/sigreen-pilot-program#Brief.

Image caption: Dr Susan Close and Peter Halliday.