Sustainability

Sustainability & Zero Waste

When we started Lenah Game Meats 30 years ago climate warming and change was a faint whisper on the wind in Tasmania. Thirty years later and it’s around us with a force that often feels as mighty as the roaring forties that blow across Tasmania’s ancient wilderness.

Making the world an economically, socially and environmentally safe place for our children is our number one priority.

Lenah was established to create markets for wallaby and possum meat from the belief it makes sense to produce food from the animals perfectly adapted to our environment. From a climate change perspective, the development of these markets is extremely important.

All of our wallaby are wild sourced from their natural environment and are harvested under strict Government control and regulation. We operate within a strict quota system to ensure that the population isn’t threatened in any way.

ZERO WASTE

We are committed to utilising the whole animal and have developed a range of sustainable fur products. Handmade in Tasmania our Lavish line of products are uniquely beautiful and are a by-product from our game meat harvesting. All parts of the animals are used and there is minimal waste. We produce a range of portion-controlled cuts and smallgoods for restaurants and the home cook as well as preservative free high quality pet food products.

Wallaby skins and possum furs are important side products. Possum fur is sold on to be blended with merino wool creating a distinctive Tasmanian fibre and wallaby skins are made into luxurious homewares and fashion items, including Wuggs and Wuffs.

SWEAT FREE WUGGS

Carbon Emission Assessment

We commissioned ER Advisory to assess carbon emissions of our wallaby products using a globally adopted protocol for carbon accounting. For the 2023 financial year, the total emissions footprint from the sale of Wallaby products was
380(t) of C02-e which equates to 2.39Kg of CO2-e per Kg of Wallaby product, a very low carbon content.

Every time a consumer eats an adult portion of Lenah wallaby rather than beef they save 5.5kg of embedded carbon emissions. Over Lenah’s 30 year lifetime it is estimated the business has produced enough wallaby meat to abate more than 92 million kilograms of carbon emissions. This is equivalent to shutting down Australia’s worst polluting coal fired power station for an entire year!

Analysing wallaby’s carbon footprint in terms of its protein and iron content is even more revealing. Wallaby meat is one of the lowest embedded carbon proteins in the world with only 10.4 kg of carbon per kg of protein compared to tofu (15.3), chicken (30) and beef (130). The results for iron are even more pronounced.

Wuggs - Tasmanian wallaby fur ugg boots v traditional uggs in Sweat research by RMIT. Read it here

Making the world an economically, socially and environmentally safe place for our children is our number one priority.

ENVIRONMENTAL CREDENTIALS

Wallabies emit almost no methane, a very harmful greenhouse gas. Thus wallaby meat can be eaten with a carbon-free conscience.

Methane is produced in large quantities by farmed animals such as cattle, sheep and pigs. Methane gas emissions from livestock account for over 10% of Australia’s annual greenhouse gas emissions. Tasmanian wallabies have a digestive system that produces very small amounts of methane, meaning our wallaby products are virtually carbon neutral.

Wallabies are wild harvested. They are not fenced, drenched, handled, transported live, fed grains or processed products. The land they are harvested from does not need to be cleared of native vegetation and "improved", cultivated, sprayed or fertilised. Instead, the wallabies can be harvested off land that is unmodified and natural. The flow on environmental benefits are significant.

Furthermore, wallaby water consumption per kilo of edible meat is 70% less than sheep and almost 90% less than beef.

As a naturally occurring product, Tasmanian wallaby is the meat of choice for the environmentally conscious consumer.