20 January 2021 - Feed additive company AB Vista is introducing an emissions reporting service for customers and all industry stakeholders to help with their sustainability programmes.
Using independent reporting, and employing recognised methodologies, the service will mainly focus on supporting its customers’ sustainability programmes by detecting areas within the feed production process with a high emissions rate and providing tailored strategies to reduce this environmental impact.
On the occasion of the launch, Feedinfo was able to talk to Juan Ignacio Fernandez, Managing Director at AB Vista, to discuss what distinguishes this service from other Life Cycle Analyses and how feed additives and changes to feed formulation have significant roles to play.
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Juan Ignacio Fernandez |
[Feedinfo] Mr. Fernandez, how challenging can it be for a livestock operation to evaluate its own emissions? How does AB Vista help with the analysis? [Juan Ignacio Fernandez] There are a few obstacles that feed and protein producers often have to overcome when analysing their on-farm emissions. There are a huge number of areas that need to be looked at, including water usage, manure management, fertiliser usage, etc. Some of these areas have been given more visibility in the global emissions narrative, in particular land and fertiliser usage. |
First, livestock producers need to decide on the level of analysis they want to carry out when looking at this area. The most comprehensive way to conduct such an evaluation is to do what is called a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), a detailed consultancy that oversees all livestock (or any other) operations in detail and gives an in-depth analysis of the environmental impact of that operation. If this is the route that a company wants to follow, there are traditional consultancy companies offering specific and bespoke models to conduct this assessment, but it can require considerable financial and time investment. Considering the time scales involved, it would be a difficult model to use routinely as a management tool to monitor the environmental impact of day-to-day decisions at such operations.
At AB Vista we have followed a different route and partnered with, our sister company, Intellync to offer a Life Cycle Inventory or Product Carbon Footprint’ service that allows customers to have a quick but comprehensive insight regarding these impacts, helping them to make daily decisions. We are pleased to have launched our new emissions reporting service which delivers fast and reliable results using an internationally recognised emissions database for raw materials. The service is designed to meet PAS2050 standards, but using the Intellync model a lot of time is saved in the data capture and processing stages. Of course, if our service is a step for customers to move to a LCA approach and use both assessments, we would actively encourage this.
[Feedinfo] Why is it that customers do not always realise the impact feed formulation can have on emissions?
[Juan Ignacio Fernandez] Feed formulation is not usually an area of focus for the global public. Instead, it is more of an internal issue, used to balance production cost and/or animal performance. Because of this, feed formulation is an often-overlooked aspect, but one that can contribute a significant level of emissions. We know that, depending on the species, 40-80% of livestock carbon emissions are associated with the production of feed - clearly a substantial proportion. Changing feed formulation could therefore have a large impact on a company’s carbon footprint.
Feed additives are included in the diet to allow producers to improve animal performance and welfare, and/or balance the type and inclusion of different ingredients in the diet. Each of these outcomes will influence the environmental impact of animal production. As a feed additives business, if we can provide feed mills and protein producers with solutions to reduce their emissions using our products, there is an opportunity for them to market their produce as low carbon meat. Consumers would no longer have to make conscious purchasing decisions based on the environmental impact of consuming meat. And even if they decide to do it, they can do it in a more informed way.
[Feedinfo] How will you be guiding your customers to achieve optimal feed additive nutrition this year? Will your advice to lower emissions include solutions that do not exist in the current AB Vista product portfolio?
[Juan Ignacio Fernandez] Our emissions service provides customers with a report highlighting where in their processes the most emissions are being released. These areas could be in feed production, but could also be in fuel and/or electricity usage or manure management etc. Our expertise lies in feed production, so it is in this area that we can add the most value beyond the initial report. However, we will always advise customers to look at the areas which will make the biggest contribution to their environmental goals. Based on the customer situation, and linking with the other services that we offer, we can advise and discuss with customers the best ways to affect the environmental impact, suggest changes whether related to our products or not, and then monitor how it correlates in the animal performance. Otherwise, it becomes a purely theoretical analysis. The key to the service is to evaluate the actual situation, make changes and see the impact of the changes in practice. As with any other service we offer to customers, our focus is to share intelligence that drives real benefits.
[Feedinfo] You argue that nutritionists need to start to formulate feeds based on emissions. Can nutritionists today manage this, or do we need to re-think how feed formulation is carried out and bring in new skill sets?
[Juan Ignacio Fernandez] There are many factors that nutritionists need to consider when formulating feed, emissions is just one of them. For instance, formulating based only on emissions may have a negative impact on animal performance and/or an increase feed cost; in both cases that would have a negative impact on the economic and environmental aspect of animal production that is, at the end of the day, the final goal. With that in mind, increasing pressure from consumers means this aspect of animal production is something that is likely to become more and more important, it’s worth highlighting that you can only manage and reduce your environmental impact if you are measuring it in the first instance. Specifically, in feed formulation, we are already looking at this aspect. The data we have shows that small changes in the diet can have big impacts on emissions without affecting animal performance. I think at this stage, it is about getting this message out to nutritionists, giving them the confidence to test these approaches and providing them with the tools to accurately measure the outputs.
[Feedinfo] What sort of changes has AB Vista recently made to its own production systems to lower its carbon footprint?
[Juan Ignacio Fernandez] AB Vista works in conjunction with its sister companies within Associated British Foods to offer products to animal production companies. This means that most of the emissions (or the carbon footprint) of our activities are related to the production of our feed additive products and in this respect, we work with our partners to assess and manage these impacts.
As discussed, we can only manage what we monitor. Our data shows, the biggest impact caused by our activity is related to transportation and we have been working on reducing this for quite some time. To rationalise our supply chain, we have introduced concentrated products and biodegradable packaging. Long before the pandemic we began reducing business travel through digital meetings and conferences. Both those approaches have naturally accelerated since the beginning of last year, but this meant that we were already prepared for these changes when they became mandatory.
Published in association with AB Vista
