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.
[email protected]
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
Why does sustainable sourcing matter to Unilever?
They have a big footprint in an area of limited control
High
Low
Environmental
Footprint
Unilever’s Influence
High
Natural
Transportation
Resources
Manufacturing
SUPPLY CHAIN
Product
Distribution
Consumers
Low
Agroforestry
Residue
management
Manure
management
Change diet
Optimise
fertiliser
production
and use
Machinery
Efficiency
and use
Change
flooding
regime
No-till
Cover-cropping
IPCC, 2006
Sources of emissions on farm and possible mitigation practices
What does the science say?
Professor Pete Smith, U of
Aberdeen. Coordinating
lead author of agriculture
volumes
Chapters summarising effectiveness of many mitigation practices in
total
But which practices are effective for my product and my
region?
Origins,
Autumn 2008
We need some software because farmers lack….
…robust and credible methods for quantifying farmlevel 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
Cool Farming Options (2010-2012)
● A number of companies and
sponsors involved:
● Covering a range of farming
systems and geographies:
Source: www.sustainablefood.org
Cool Farming Options
Germany
Italy
France
Canada
USA
Mexico
Jamaica
Guatemala
Nicaragua
Colombia
Paraguay
Brazil
Azerbaijan
Indonesia
India
Egypt
Ghana
Kenya
Tanzania
Improved tool
History and Progress
Timeline
-Development
-Testing
- Numerous case
studies
- Developments
and
enhancements
in progress
-1st conference
25 attendees
-5 press stories
inc FT &
Farmers Weekly
-Cool Farming
Options launched
-Inception
Uni of Aberdeen
Unilever
-Alliance formed
-Founding partnerships
-Funds raised
-Website & logo
-Software specified
Funded by sponsoring
partners
Funded by Unilever
-2nd conference
40 attendees
-14 press stories
inc Guardian, The Grocer,
Environmental Leader,
Farmers Guardian,
Farmers Weekly
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
YOUR RESULTS SO FAR
259.4
39.3
by land area:
by production:
1. Production
2. Soil
3. Fertiliser Use
kg CO2 eq Per hectare
kg CO2 eq Per tonne
4. Pesticide Applications
Evolution of the CFT
5. Crop Residue Management
6. Crop Management Results
Progress tracker
Live results
Quick tab views
Save entered data
6x
DATA ENTRY
2 – Growing area
Area
Soil:
-
Texture
-
Organic matter
-
Moisture
-
Drainage
-
pH
Description
Detailed results
The Cool Farm Tool
An easy to use and standardised on-line tool for
calculating the on-farm environmental impacts,
applicable globally
Farmers
Science
Industry
Industry-backed
Scientifically
robust
Farmer-friendly
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
Farmer-friendly
• 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)
“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 onfarm 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
Development
Improved GHGs
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
New metrics Water footprinting
Barbara Percy, Reading University
Benjamin Kayatz, Martin Wattenbach, GFZ Potsdam
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”
Group code
Compare GHG emissions to
peers…group learning
Suppliers
Economics
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
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