The Cool Farm Tool

and The Cool Farm Alliance

An collaborative approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing sustainability in agriculture

Jon Hillier. University of Aberdeen. j.hillier@abdn.ac.uk

BUSINESS CASE STUDY: UNILEVER

• Diverse portfolio of products across food, home and personal care.

• Complex global supply chains

• Vast consumer base

• Reliance on agricultural supply base for many raw materials e.g. Cocoa, palm oil tea, vanilla, soy, dairy produce, fruit and veg etc.

Sustainability pledge

START WITH GHG EMISSIONS

Unilever’s Greenhouse Gas Footprint

Consumers

SUPPLY CHAIN

Uni

leve

r’s In

fluen

ce

High

Low Natural Resources

Transportation Manufacturing Product Distribution

Envi

ronm

enta

l Fo

otpr

int

High

Low

They have a big footprint in an area of limited control

Why does sustainable sourcing matter to Unilever?

IPCC, 2006

Agroforestry

Residue management

Manure management

Machinery Efficiency and use

No-till Cover-cropping

Optimise fertiliser production and use

Sources of emissions on farm and possible mitigation practices

Change diet Change flooding regime

What does the science say?

But which practices are effective for my product and my region?

Chapters summarising effectiveness of many mitigation practices in total

Professor Pete Smith, U of Aberdeen. Coordinating lead author of agriculture volumes

Origins, Autumn 2008

We need some software because farmers lack…. …robust and credible methods for quantifying farm-level GHGs… and …practical tools to identify the most effective emission reduction practices and quantify their effects.

Christof Walter, Unilever Sustainable Agriculture

Pete Smith, Jon Hillier Soil GHG modelling group, U of Aberdeen

First version of the Cool Farm Tool – 2009/2010

• Science-based

• Easy to use by

farmers

• Open and free to use

• …others began to

enquire

● A number of companies and sponsors involved:

● Covering a range of farming systems and geographies:

Source: www.sustainablefood.org

Cool Farming Options (2010-2012)

Canada Azerbaijan

Tanzania

Guatemala

India

USA

Jamaica

Germany

Colombia Kenya

Egypt

Nicaragua

Indonesia

Italy

Brazil

Ghana

Mexico

Paraguay

France

Cool Farming Options

Improved tool

Timeline

-Inception Uni of Aberdeen Unilever

-Cool Farming Options launched

-1st conference 25 attendees -5 press stories inc FT & Farmers Weekly

-Alliance formed -Founding partnerships -Funds raised -Website & logo -Software specified -2nd conference 40 attendees -14 press stories inc Guardian, The Grocer, Environmental Leader, Farmers Guardian, Farmers Weekly

- Numerous case studies - Developments and enhancements in progress

Funded by Unilever

-Development -Testing

History and Progress

Funded by sponsoring partners

CFA Mission Statement

The Cool Farm Alliance will help millions of growers globally to make more informed on-farm decisions

that reduce their environmental impact.

Initial Focus: GHG impacts

Succeeding together – collaboration is key

• Cool Farm Alliance owned by an industry consortium • Partners, members and supporters are drawn from across

industry, academia, not-for-profits and consultants • Benefit from tackling big challenges together and having a

consistent approach to measurement

Evolution of the CFT 1. Production 2. Soil 3. Fertiliser Use 4. Pesticide Applications 5. Crop Residue Management 6. Crop Management Results

39.3 kg CO2 eq Per tonne

YOUR RESULTS SO FAR 259.4 kg CO2 eq Per hectare by land area:

by production:

Quick tab views

Live results

6 x DATA ENTRY

Save entered data

Progress tracker

2 – Growing area

Area Soil: - Texture

- Organic matter

- Moisture

- Drainage

- pH

Detailed results

Description

The Cool Farm Tool

An easy to use and standardised on-line tool for calculating the on-farm environmental impacts, applicable globally

Industry-backed Scientifically

robust Farmer-friendly

Science

Industry

Farmers

Science-based

• Tool draws on established research, e.g.:

Livestock: IPCC Tier 1 and 2 calculations

Field N2O: Bouwman model

Soil Carbon: IPCC model

Fertilizer emissions: Fertilizers Europe

Energy: GHG Protocol, IEA and EPA

• Farm management sensitive

• A scenario tool: what is vs. what could be

• Allows exploration of mitigation options

• 89% of Tesco growers would recommend to others (2013-14 pilot)

Farmer-friendly

“The interactive nature of the CFT is fantastic and the ‘what if’ scenarios

make it very captivating”

Feedback from US processor

(Part of the known) Usage

• Unilever: over 10,000 farms, embedding in its Sustainable Agriculture Code (SAC), as the requirement for the GHG metric.

• PepsiCo: >100 potato farmers covering about 800 hectares • Costco: over 60 million dozens eggs p/a • McCain: 15 countries about 30 sample farms • 7 different partners: coffee 7 countries, 500 farms

>10,000 assessments across at least 33 countries and 28 crops

Unilever and the CFT

• CFT is embedded within the Unilever sustainable agriculture code (SAC)

• Over 100k farms assess their on-farm GHG emissions

• Want to assess whether adherence to SAC reducing GHG emissions

• Increase awareness and drive continuous improvement

• Surprising benefit is improved relationship with suppliers.

Costco

• Costco Organic egg examples: • 10 farmers. Millions of eggs. • Farmers conducted assessments and then meet to compare

results. • 3 successive years

– Farmers were compared to the distribution for the 10. 14% reduction in year 2

– Costco and its farmers moved from scepticism to pride to being at the cutting edge

– Positive because it is a mechanism for engagement – summits which built camaraderie. Even to the point of sharing eggs when there were shortages.

More case studies available online (www.coolfarmtool.org)

Impact summary

• Has been used the CFT with suppliers to enact carbon reduction plans and drive reduction in their supply chains.

• As an education tool to advise farmer on improved management, and to identify intervention to manage environmental impact

• Has improved the relationship with suppliers

Improved GHGs

Development

2012 2015

Improved GHG models

• Nitrous oxide emissions from soils. With CIMMYT, and Yara. Funded by CCAFS (https://ccafs.cgiar.org/)

• Updated emission factors for fertiliser production. With Fertilizers Europe.

• Enhancements for perennial crop systems and for livestock production systems in planning

Barbara Percy, Reading University Benjamin Kayatz, Martin Wattenbach, GFZ Potsdam

New metrics - Water footprinting

New metrics - Biodiversity

Linking with Cambridge University Conservation Evidence Group Caitlin McCormack, Lynn Dicks, Prof Bill Sutherland

Aggregation, etc. What is a good “carbon / water /

biodiversity footprint”

Suppliers

Group code

Compare GHG emissions to peers…group learning

Providing info on €€€/$$$/£££ of implementation will enable cost-effective mitigation solutions to be found

Decision-makers need reliable information on the economic impact of SAP to design effective support policies.

Economics module

Facilitate adoption of positive practices by farmers

Economics

Summary

• How can the science on environmental impacts of farming be used practically

• Co-design of solutions – Business (farm, food & drink, retail, ag inputs, etc)

must be engaged in the technologies – Practices to improve environmental performance

must allow businesses to function throughout the whole supply chain