Coles launches carbon neutral beef brand

How a new Coles brand is using both ‘insetting’ and offsetting to help 10 beef producers reach carbon neutral.

Millie Ritchie, employee Toby Humphrey and Mark Ritchie on Delatite Station. Photo: Coles

The beef industry’s bid to become carbon neutral by 2030 has been given a boost this week, with Coles supermarkets today launching Australia’s first supermarket own brand carbon neutral beef product.

As part of the new brand, Coles is piloting ‘insetting’ – a technique that will credit producers for carbon sequestration from small-scale tree growth on their properties.

About 10 low-emissions Victorian and NSW beef producers will initially supply the brand – Coles Finest Certified Carbon Neutral Beef – which will be available in Victorian stores this week and will rollout nationwide over the next 12 months.

Coles’ head of beef procurement, Stephen Rennie, said demand for sustainable beef was strong, and he hoped the new brand could grow to be bigger than Coles’ grass fed beef brands, which are currently supplied by about 150 small seasonal producers.

“It is early days, but the market research we have done shows that the interest level of people (in sustainable beef) is growing all the time,” Mr Rennie said.

The move comes two years after the North Australian Pastoral Company launched Australia’s first carbon neutral beef range, and is expected to bring the industry a step closer to the Meat and Livestock Association’s ambitious goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

Victorian producer Mark Ritchie, who will supply the new brand, said the contract would motivate him to “ramp up” the sustainability initiatives on his property he first kicked off 30 years ago.

“Historically we took this approach because it was the right thing to do and we will continue to plant trees, fence off water ways and improve the biodiversity of our farm landscape,” Mr Ritchie said.

To be able to supply beef for the new range, Delatite Station had its carbon footprint assessed by Toowoomba-based consultancy Integrity Ag & Environment.

The company is now assessing how it can further decrease its footprint, Mr Ritchie said.

“At this stage for us, this will mean continuing with our farm tree planting program, looking at potential farm forestry options and exploring the potential of the use of the NOP 3 feed additives, currently under development, to reduce our enteric methane emissions,” he said.

The ‘insetting’ pilot – part of the Federal Government’s Climate Active program – will measure the carbon sequestered by trees on each property annually, and aims to provide an incentive for producers to plant and maintain trees at smaller scales than traditional offset projects.

Supplier Jane Marriott said the pilot had motivated her to plant 2500 trees in 2021 on her property in Benalla, Victoria.

She hoped the carbon neutral brand would show consumers “we can still produce beef while at the same time looking after the landscape and environment”.

According to Integrity Ag & Environment modelling, suppliers to the new brand produce 19 per cent less emissions per kilogram of live weight than the Australian average.

To offset the brand’s full supply chain emissions, including processing and transporting the beef to stores, Coles has signed up to buy offsets from the 40,000ha Armoobilla tree-planting project near Quilpie in south west Queensland, owned by private company Lanin Holdings Pty Ltd.