How do you track the carbon footprint of your food?

1 What is carbon footprint?

Carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are emitted as a result of a product, activity, or organization. It is usually expressed in kilograms or tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), which takes into account the global warming potential of different gases. For food products, the carbon footprint includes the emissions from the production, processing, packaging, distribution, storage, consumption, and disposal of the food.

2 How to calculate carbon footprint?

There are different methods and tools to calculate the carbon footprint of your food products, depending on the level of detail and accuracy you need. One common approach is to use a life cycle assessment (LCA), which is a systematic analysis of the environmental impacts of a product throughout its life cycle. LCA can help you identify the hotspots and trade-offs of your food system, and compare different scenarios and alternatives. You can use LCA software, databases, or online calculators to perform an LCA, or hire a consultant or a certification body to do it for you.

3 How to use carbon footprint?

Calculating the carbon footprint of your food products can be used to inform decision making and communicate environmental performance. Setting goals and targets to reduce emissions and improve efficiency, monitoring and reporting progress, identifying opportunities and challenges for innovation and collaboration, communicating sustainability efforts and benefits to customers, stakeholders, and regulators, as well as participating in voluntary or mandatory carbon labeling or certification schemes are all ways that you can use carbon footprint.

4 What are the benefits of tracking carbon footprint?

Tracking the carbon footprint of your food products can help you save money and resources, enhance your reputation and credibility, increase your competitiveness, and contribute to global efforts to mitigate climate change. By reducing energy and material consumption, waste generation, and meeting the expectations of customers and regulators, you can demonstrate your commitment to transparency and protect the environment. This can open up new market opportunities and give you an edge over competitors.

5 What are the challenges of tracking carbon footprint?

Tracking the carbon footprint of your food products can be challenging, as it requires reliable and consistent data and assumptions for calculations, as well as dealing with uncertainty and variability in results and interpretations. Additionally, you must manage the trade-offs and synergies between different environmental impacts and indicators, while also considering the costs and benefits of tracking and reducing your carbon footprint. Engaging and collaborating with suppliers and partners along your supply chain is essential to make this process successful.

6 How to overcome the challenges?

To successfully track the carbon footprint of your food products, you can use reliable sources and standards for data and methods. Additionally, sensitivity and uncertainty analysis can be applied to test and validate your results. It is important to consider the whole life cycle and system perspective of your products and impacts, as well as evaluate the return on investment and value proposition of your carbon footprint actions and initiatives. Finally, it is essential to build trust and cooperation with your supply chain actors and stakeholders.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?