Equipping Australian agriculture with sustainability metrics

The project will update existing inventory to capture on-farm improvements, add new agricultural products and key post-farm processes to AusLCI. Partnering with postfarm businesses and international standards, the project will include an analysis of the interoperability of systems for down-stream supply chain participants to integrate environment metrics into their operations, including how businesses can use this information to track and communicate.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) underpins key national and international sustainability schemes (Climate Active, Product Environmental Footprints, EU Renewable Energy Directive, ISCC, ARENA). LCA enables product comparisons and evaluation of Circular Economy claims. LCA is only as good as the underpinning life cycle inventory (LCI) that supports it. In the 2010s, Australian agriculture recognised the importance of providing publicly available, peer-reviewed and transparent LCI; several RDCs, CSIRO and Lifecycles partnered to create AusLCI.