For most pet food companies, ingredients account for the largest share — often more than 50% — of their products’ carbon footprints, so finding more sustainable options and sources offers a meaningful tactic for reaching a sustainability goal. Which nearly every company these days, whether pet food manufacturer or supplier, has.
An important tool for striving toward such a goal is a life cycle analysis. Conducting an accurate, useful one, especially for pet food formulations, depends on good data on each ingredient’s exact carbon footprint, source and other metrics. To date, some data have been available for broader categories — for example, beef versus chicken versus fish proteins — but not always for specific ingredients or sources, and not necessarily for how they are used in pet food, including standards for how to account for that use.
That is starting to change. The European feed industry has developed an ingredient footprint standard and database within the Global Feed LCA Institute (GFLI); and the European (EFPRA) and North American (NARA) rendering associations have both initiated GFLI projects collecting data and creating an environmental footprint for rendered animal byproducts used in the pet food and feed markets, according to Janjoris van Diepen, footprint director North America, Mérieux NutriSciences/Blonk Sustainability.
(van Diepen will share information on these efforts during Petfood Essentials 2025, which focuses on sustainability, on April 28. During a Petfood Forum session the next day, Roger Gerlach, director of global pet food sales, APC, will discuss one segment of the animal byproducts database, blood-derived proteins.)
On a larger scale, encompassing all pet food ingredients, the Pet Sustainability Coalition (PSC) has partnered with the HowGood database, allowing its members to make data-driven decisions on sourcing and formulations to reduce carbon emissions across their supply chains. An independent research company, HowGood performs product and ingredient-level sustainability assessments across eight key metrics: greenhouse gas emissions, blue water usage, biodiversity, soil health, labor risk, land occupation, animal welfare and processing.
This footprinting model has been verified by the Carbon Trust, is aligned to global sustainability and climate reporting frameworks and is compliant with enterprise data security standards, according to PSC. The breadth and depth of the model allow for insight into decarbonization opportunities and industry benchmarking, said Allison Reser, director of Sustainability & Innovation with PSC. (She will also present during Petfood Essentials.)
While these ingredient carbon footprint database efforts may be nascent, their development bodes well for the industry’s ongoing sustainability progress.
Pet food protein sustainability showdown
