The footprint made it possible to connect emissions, self-consumption, forest management and conservation into a fuller picture.
Where this project comes from
PIRINAT is a primary-sector company founded by three siblings who have built on a network of relationships developed over generations in a rural setting. Their bond with the land isn’t strategic, it’s vital. They work to keep the landscape, the people and the economic activity in balance, because it’s their home, and because they understand that looking after the land is the only way the business has a future.
Their approach to sustainability is short on rhetoric and long on practice. It doesn’t start from external requirements, but from a deep conviction: doing things properly is the best way to do them. That commitment shows in how they manage forest land, protect local wildlife, innovate around the livestock breed they work with, and stay constantly involved in the area’s cultural, social and sporting life. All of it is visible on-site, on their farms.
Spora’s role in this project wasn’t to change any of that — it was to bring focus and numbers to what was already there.
The project brought focus and numbers to a way of working that already looked after the land.
What it changes, and why it matters
The carbon footprint revealed a reality common to primary-sector meat producers: a very significant share of the climate impact comes from process emissions linked to enteric fermentation in livestock. This result isn’t meant to be a complete picture — it points to where the main hotspots sit when analysing emissions under the organisation’s direct control.
That’s precisely why the exercise should be read as a starting point. The calculated footprint doesn’t yet include a very significant part of the model’s potential impact — Scope 3, especially emissions linked to the network of associated farms and other elements of the value chain — nor a detailed assessment of the absorption mechanisms tied to the forest management and active wildlife protection PIRINAT already carries out on its land.
Far from weakening the analysis, this reading puts the production model in context and helps identify where it makes sense to act, measure better and widen the scope of analysis. At the same time, the footprint makes visible practices that already exist — energy self-consumption, direct management of forest land, conservation initiatives — pointing towards a broader approach, where emissions reduction needs to sit alongside carbon absorption and the value of the nature credits linked to land protection.
How we do it
The footprint was calculated following the GHG Protocol and ISO 14064-1, covering Scopes 1 and 2 and using primary data from the organisation itself. We analysed emissions from the vehicle fleet, the facilities’ energy consumption, process emissions linked to livestock, and electricity consumption, integrating official factors and comparability criteria.
Beyond the inventory, the exercise made it possible to build monitoring indicators that make the results easier to read and track over time. The footprint came with a first strategic decarbonization framework identifying realistic lines of action: improving processes linked to livestock feed and management, expanding renewable self-consumption, progressively bringing in Scope 3, and assessing the potential of forest management as an absorption and offsetting mechanism. The calculation turned into indicators and realistic lines of action for reducing, measuring better, and widening the scope.
Limits, lessons, and the future it sets in motion
This project makes clear that sustainability in the primary sector isn’t solved with isolated gestures or simplified narratives. The carbon footprint doesn’t reduce impact on its own, but it makes it possible to organise it — connecting and giving coherence to many actions that already existed, scattered.
The future this exercise sets in motion is strategic: building a solid sustainability structure that lets PIRINAT respond to growing market demands without giving up its identity. A strategy able to integrate emissions reduction, carbon absorption and territorial value — reflecting the good work already being done, and guiding the effort still ahead with rigour, realism and coherence.
Here, sustainability isn’t imposed: it’s demonstrated.
In the primary sector, sustainability isn’t imposed: it’s measured, contextualised and demonstrated.