Food South Australia (Food SA) and Siemens, a leading technology company, announced Tucker’s Natural as the first food and beverage (F&B) company in the Southern Hemisphere to run a pilot of Sigreen, an innovative emission-tracking and management solution essential for net zero. The South Australian family-owned company, launched in 2007 and Australia’s most-awarded cracker company, was selected from several other applicants and announced at Food SA’s 2023 Food and Beverage Summit.
The Sigreen pilot process was announced in March this year with the Deputy Premier of the South Australian Government and Food SA, and aimed at local food and beverage (F&B) companies interested in accelerating their sustainability and net zero targets. The selected company would then have the capability to track and manage verifiable Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) across its supply chain while maintaining full data sovereignty.
Sam Tucker, founder and Managing Director of Tucker’s Natural was thrilled the company had been chosen for the pilot: “We’re excited to be chosen as the first company in Australia to participate in Siemens’ Sigreen pilot. Tucker’s Natural was founded on the principle of producing better for you baked products that are high quality, sustainable and local. Our Responsible Sourcing Program focuses on reducing social and environmental risks in our supply chain—and making sure our suppliers share our commitment. A key missing piece to achieving this has been the lack of emissions data across our supply chains.
“We look forward to using the data produced from the pilot to make decisions that support our goal of operating and developing our business in a sustainable and responsible manner. Thanks to Food SA, Siemens and the South Australian Government for supporting small businesses and giving us access to the latest global technology helping accelerate sustainability goals.”
Tucker’s Natural will have an unparalleled opportunity to engage with their supply chain on a product level and quantify the CO2 contribution of individual components and suppliers, enabling a cross-company effort towards decarbonisation, carbon reduction and net zero targets.
Milan Bawa, General Manager of Factory Automation at Siemens Australia and New Zealand said, “I commend Tucker’s Natural on taking the giant step forward on their net zero journey with a commitment to measure and subsequently reduce emissions in their direct supply chain. As the global focus on net zero intensifies, legislation in key global markets such as the US, Europe and the UK will mean that companies in these global supply chains will need to have full transparency on their emissions.
“Siemens has been in Australia for 150 years and through the decades, our simple goal has been to support local industry with the best of global technology to help accelerate positive outcomes for business, society and the environment. As we help iconic locations such as the MCG, RMIT University’s Melbourne City campus and others get more sustainable, we’re equally proud to support smaller organisations like Tucker’s Natural reach their full sustainability potential.”
The pilot will start in June and run until October this year with Siemens and Tucker’s Natural working closely through the process.
Through Sigreen, Tucker’s Natural will benefit from replacing highly manual processes, exchange emission data along the supply chain and combine it with data from the company’s own value creation to obtain a product’s true carbon footprint.
Speaking at the 2023 Food and Beverage Summit, Food SA’s CEO Catherine Sayer said “It’s great that a dynamic and visionary local food and beverage company such as Tucker’s Natural has been selected for the pilot. It’s been wonderful to witness their growth and commitment to sustainability through the years. They are the perfect fit for this first-of-its-kind pilot in Australia."
“I’m particularly looking forward to the outcomes of the pilot so we can showcase the importance of being able to understand the environmental impact of supply chains.”
Using innovative technologies, Sigreen makes it possible to exchange emission data along the supply chain - from sourcing raw materials and packaging right through to customers enjoying the end product.
Background information
The transition towards a low carbon economy is gaining momentum worldwide. Most companies today measure their energy-related emissions – and an increasing number of them are pursuing emission reduction measures. The decarbonisation of value chains is a challenge which cannot be overcome by one company alone. In fact, the upstream supply chains account for a major part of the Product Carbon Footprint, rather than a company’s own manufacturing process. Suppliers produce so-called Scope 3 emissions – and quantifying these emissions is of critical importance. Collecting precise and trustworthy information on the emissions originating from a company’s partners in the supply chain requires considerable effort in today’s world.
To address this issue, Siemens has developed an ecosystem-based approach for the exchange of trustworthy product emission values. As recommended by leading NGOs (WRI, GHG Protocol, and GIZ), it is based on a Distributed Ledger. In contrast to existing solutions, the data is not provided centrally by a company or institution. Instead, it is exchanged directly within the scope of customer-supplier relations. Verifiable Credentials optionally issued by trusted third parties are exchanged via a Distributed Ledger in order to verify the data provided – and to enable the trustworthy aggregation of an overall Product Carbon Footprint across the supply chain – without the companies involved having to disclose data of strategic relevance, for example details of their own supply chains.
Simplifying the communication with partners in the supply chain and optimizing the calculation of a company’s own gate-to-gate emissions can significantly reduce the effort required to determine a CO2 footprint compared to other approaches available on the market.
