Over the next twelve months AgriFood Skills Australia will be hosting a series of interactive seminars on business sustainability at a range of locations around Australia.

• Seminar Reports
      - Launceston Seminar

The seminars are aimed at chief executives, managing directors and business owners and seek to provide detailed guidelines for ‘future proofing’ food processing businesses by making them more sustainable. In the coming years many Australian food processors can expect to face the challenges posed by:

• Large hikes in energy costs 
• Access to an affordable water supply 
• More regulation  demanded by a carbon constrained economy
• More demanding and discerning ‘green consumers’
• Gaps in the right skills to deal with numerous challenges

To survive and compete in this environment business management must begin to think strategically, build relationships and activate the workplace to respond to these pressures. Sustainability is the key to the survival of business operations in the longer term - it is not just about diagnostics and technical ‘fixes’ and processes.

Food processors are particularly vulnerable to forecasts of rising costs and changing expectations resulting from climate change. The seminars will assist you to prepare and to identify:

• Cost savings at an early stage
• Strategies to prepare for change and engage your workforce
• Ways to minimise the carbon impact/footprint of your supply chain
• Funding options to support a sustainable business

The seminars are hosted in conjunction with various industry bodies and state and local governments, and timing and location details for upcoming events will be detailed on the website.

The seminars will offer enterprises a short highly focused approach to specific sustainability issues in the food processing, best practice and support and diagnostic services, with a heightened emphasis on skills and workforce development aspects.

Participation will include a pre-seminar ‘Green Skills’ needs analysis and financial support for ongoing exchange of ideas and skills development with other enterprise leaders.
 

Background

Many engineers and technically qualified workers in the Australian food industry were trained and worked much of their lives in an era of relatively low energy costs and have experienced only limited business drivers to measure, manage and reduce carbon emissions.

As such they can often lack the technical and organisational skills to develop carbon mitigation sustainable systems. Everyday practices such as equipment design, procurement, commissioning and production management, maintenance and repair can have a large impact on overall plant efficiency. Moving towards more low-carbon, sustainable work practices requires improved knowledge of the business impacts of everyday shop-floor decisions, supporting information and tools, and cultural change and is broad-based and enduring.

Effective workforce development and cultural change is essential for making this change work and become a normal part of everyday operations and job roles.
 

Contact

Michael Claessens
General Manager, Workforce Development and Analysis
Ph: 02 6163 7213
E: michael.claessens@agrifoodskills.net.au