Malta’s public abattoir is to monitor its greenhouse gas emissions and electricity consumption, in an attempt to become more energy efficient.

Twenty sensors have been installed across machinery at the Marsa abattoir, where animals are slaughtered and locally-produced meat is prepared for distribution.

These sensors are connected to an energy management platform that will inform abattoir management of their carbon and energy consumption and output. A consultancy firm engaged as part of the project, ClearVUE.Business, will guide the public entity on how to best cut its emissions and reduce energy use.

Minister Refalo was in attendance during a presentation of the new abattoir technology. Photo: DOI/Clodagh O'Neill

Emissions will be recorded and monitored using the so-called Greenhouse Gas Protocol – a set of international accounting and reporting standards developed as a framework for measuring and managing emissions that is now widely used across the corporate world.

The abattoir is the first state-run entity to proactively monitor its emissions, Agriculture Minister Anton Refalo noted during a visit to the facility.

Refalo said the new technology would improve the abattoir’s efficiency “for the benefit of local farmers.”