Sustainable beef and sheep production has been on many industry leaders' mind for several years – but meat processing specialist, ABP's Ellesmere plant is the first certified beef processing plant in Europe to achieve full carbon neutral status throughout the site.

This means it is tagged as a being 'triple zero' site – zero waste to landfill, zero net carbon emissions and zero net water usage.

The initiative which achieved this included everything from staff training, to the introduction of more durable packing, and optimising the way they operate packaging machines.

"The result was a huge success, with a 70% reduction in waste generation – 1.5 tonnes of packaging per day – with the same processes now being rolled out across all our sites," said Dean Holroyd, group technical and sustainability director at ABP. he added that the business achieved its 2020 goals of reduced carbon footprint by 30%, reduce electricity by 40% and reduce water consumption by 50%, much earlier than expected.

Plans included recycling materials from the original building and sourcing Green Grade ‘A’ rated materials for new buildings. The installation of an innovative combined heat and power (CHP) engine is fuelled by by-products – animal fats – recovered on site, together with bio-fuels derived from used cooking oil through Olleco, its resource recovery division.

"We have created a circular economy that reduced our carbon output by 7000 tonnes a year and provided all the site’s hot water and the majority of its electricity requirement," said Steve Thompson, category director for ABP.

Read more: Growing demand for Scotland's carbon-friendly red meat

Packaging also played a major role, having recently moved over to cardboard packaging for steaks as opposed to plastic as a trial for recycling and being better for the environment.

"By reducing food miles, we can be a huge indicator for a future environment. We are not an export nation, we are only 75% self sufficient when it comes to beef and currently we always need imports to meet customer demand," said Mr Thompson.

"But it is crucial that government does more to defend against cheap imports – the clear focus should be a level playing field for British products in the British market over imports.

"On the environment, meat produced here has emissions of less than half of the global average and the vast majority of consumers see meat as an important part of a balanced diet. We would rather see energy directed at encouraging the responsible consumption of sustainable meat in the context of a healthy diet," he said.