Tag: Scope 3 Emissions

Scope 3 Emissions – Do they still matter?

Posted on by Julia Andrus

With recent announcements on disclosure requirements and guidance from the SEC, California, and SBTi, the relevance of Scope 3 emissions (those within a company’s supply chain) has taken a variety of conflicting twists and turns. This has left many wondering: Do they still matter?

Perhaps most notably, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission finalized its long-awaited and much-debated climate-disclosure rule. While many expected the SEC to follow California’s lead related to Scope 3 disclosures, the final SEC ruling excluded a proposed requirement that companies report Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions.

What does this mean for the future of Scope 3?

In a victory for ag, producers may now be safe from providing annual farm-level data to companies far up the value chain. However, more likely than not, Scope 3 at large will continue to remain important for major companies with ag-based supply chains. Here’s why:

Many companies have already made public abatement commitments.

> Ceres’ Food Emissions 50 Company Benchmark revealed that 37 out of the 50 companies listed have reported their supply chain greenhouse gas emissions, and that 32 of them have set targets to reduce those emissions.

> Leading consumer facing brands will still be looking for Scope 3 reductions and removals. According to the Science Based Targets Initiative, the number of companies setting greenhouse gas reduction targets doubled in 2023, reaching 4,204 at year end 2023, up from 2,079 at year end 2022. Scope 3 accounting, reporting, and change is a critical requirement of these commitments, which most major grocery retailers and quick service restaurants have set.

State-level required disclosures will impact many companies.

> Quantitative Scope 3 disclosures will continue to become more prevalent. Despite the SEC’s drop of Scope 3 reporting, California – the 5th largest economy in the world – has adopted a state-specific climate disclosure law that will require companies with at least $1 billion in revenue to begin reporting on Scope 3 emissions in 2027.

Scope 3 practices remain as valuable as Scope 3 outcomes.

> According to AgFunder, nearly 40 of the world’s leading food and agriculture companies have made regenerative agriculture commitments – most of which focus on increasing acreage on which low-carbon practices are adopted to generate Scope 3 progress.

 

Read More >>> Ag Groups Respond to SEC Rule

About the Author

Zach Pinto | Director of Carbon and Ecosystem Service Markets

Zach promotes company strategy and client success by assisting industry groups, food and ag companies, and farmers on their sustainability goals. Zach has worked on carbon issues for stakeholders across the agriculture value chain and in a wide array of commodities, developing expertise in farm-level carbon accounting, MRV platform usage, voluntary and compliance market schemes, science-based targets, ESG reporting, and strategic planning.

Understanding Carbon Intensity Scores

Posted on by Julia Andrus

Carbon intensity (CI) is simply defined as carbon dioxide emissions per unit of energy. While the definition might be simple, figuring a CI score is anything but simple.

Carbon dioxide makes up the majority of greenhouse gas emissions across all industries, including the agricultural sector. Carbon Intensity Scores allow us to quantify and compare the emissions associated with producing, distributing, and consuming a product or activity. A higher score indicates a higher carbon footprint.

Ascertaining for a unit of feedstock produced and crediting the correct amount of carbon sequestered is a complex task with a high level of uncertainty. Many data points need to be measured, recorded, and verified to develop an accurate CI number. MRV platforms help assist in collecting and compiling the data necessary to calculate CI numbers efficiently and accurately.

On a farm, a CI Score accounts for all up- and downstream emissions per unit of output – including that of the practices and inputs used. In particular, scores are affected by fertilizer and chemical application types and rates, on-farm energy consumption per unit area, and yield per unit area. While each farm and system vary, the fertilizer and chemical application types and rates contribute the most to a CI score, on average.

With agriculture systems serving as the origin for so many of our products, this has huge implications for CI Scores off the farm as well. With our in-house expertise in MRV, we are helping companies better understand their carbon footprints and the right strategies to reduce or sequester emissions.

There is a growing body of evidence that shows that regenerative agriculture can have a positive impact on CI scores.

> A study published in the journal Nature found that regenerative agriculture could help to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by up to 10 percent. Read More >>>

> Another study published in the journal Science, found that regenerative agriculture could help to improve water quality and increase biodiversity. Read More >>>

The environmental benefits of regenerative agriculture are numerous and stretch throughout the value chain.

Contact AgSpire to learn more about your Carbon Intensity Score and how to unlock the potential of regenerative agriculture, email info@agspire.com.

About the Author

DEREK VER HELST
Senior Conservation Agronomist

Derek has over 15 years of experience working with landowners and corporations to design, manage, and validate research trials, maximizing short- and long-term crop outputs. With a continued passion for conservation and the natural ecosystem, he is focused on the natural symbiosis organisms have with one another in the environment. Always eager to learn, he is continuously expanding his knowledge of soil health, chemistry, and pest disease management.

Derek holds a bachelor’s degree in Biology from South Dakota State University and a master’s degree in Agronomy from Iowa State University. He is also a Certified Crop Advisor and Technical Service Provider through NRCS.

Strengthening Your Sustainability Strategy

Posted on by Julia Andrus

by Zach Pinto
Director, Carbon & Ecosystem Service Markets

In late 2015, many governments adopted the Paris Agreement – a legally binding, international treaty on greenhouse gas emissions. Since then, corporations and NGOS have joined governments to develop targets and strategies to limit environmental impacts. Now several years into the treaty, recent articles and analyses indicate that, collectively, we aren’t on track to make the changes needed.  

Sustainability Commitments 

To date, 341 food and agriculture companies have committed to and are engaging in science-based targets to advance sustainability and lower their environmental footprints. 

Within those commitments, targets around Scope 3 emissions offer the greatest opportunity for reductions and impact. Scope 3 emissions are environmental externalities that fall outside of a company’s direct control, typically within their upstream or downstream supply chains.  

For many food, feed, fuel, and fiber companies across the globe, reducing environmental impacts at the farm level is imperative for making progress toward these targets. 

Solutions within Agriculture 

Promising research shows that solutions exist within agriculture to accelerate progress and generate environmental benefit. From carbon sequestration, to improved water quality and usage, to enhanced biodiversity, these solutions can be scaled for positive global impacts.  

The good news is, much of the great work our industry is doing to inset its impacts can count as progress toward these targets. The key, of course, is making sure all of this work is measurable, verifiable, and scalable – and ensuring that the changes work for farmers and ranchers – both agronomically and economically.  

Here are three ways to strengthen your sustainability strategy and start unlocking the potential within agriculture:

  • Plan your strategy: Clarify what your supply shed looks like and outline your path forward. What are the most effective ways to drive change, measure progress, and reward farmers in the process? 
  • Partner with farmers: Farmers know how to farm, but adoption of regenerative practices is not a one-strategy-fits-all approach – cover crops don’t work for every farm, for example. Once you know where to focus, make sure you consult growers in the region to ensure you create interventions that work for their farm-specific conditions, make agronomic sense, and prove to be economically viable. 
  • Implement on the ground: Run pilots to test strategies and eventually scale them into full interventions. Ensure practices and outcomes align with leading public cost share programs and private ecosystem service markets that pay growers and count towards your targets.

Read more about how AgSpire can provide strategic guidance and implementation assistance to advance your sustainability goals: Our Services

Learn More

To showcase the great work going on in our industry, incentivize continuous improvement, and reward farmers for the positive practices they implement, many companies worldwide have set rigorous, protocol-based targets. These include:

  • Science-Based Targets: These targets define how quickly and by how much companies should reduce their environmental impacts, based on the best available science, to ensure that global goals such as the Paris Agreement or the Global Biodiversity Framework are met. Science-based targets for greenhouse gas emissions must be validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), and Science-based targets for water, land, and biodiversity must be validated by the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN).  
  • Net Zero Targets: Net Zero Targets are science-based targets that set the standard for how a company can credibly reduce their carbon footprint to net zero (when the amount of all greenhouse gases a company emits equals the amount it removes from the atmosphere) by 2050.

Additional Reading and Citations:

Soil Health and Carbon Sequestration in US Croplands: A Policy Analysis – https://food.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/GSPPCarbon_03052016_FINAL.pdf 

Cover Crops, No-Till Increase Carbon Gains in Soil – https://www.no-tillfarmer.com/articles/9818-cover-crops-no-till-increase-carbon-gains-in-soil

Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration – https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/25259/negative-emissions-technologies-and-reliable-sequestration-a-research-agenda

About the Author

ZACH PINTO
Director of Carbon & Ecosystem Service Markets

Zach promotes company strategy and client success by assisting industry groups, food and ag companies, and farmers on their sustainability goals. Zach has worked on carbon issues for stakeholders across the agriculture value chain and in a wide array of commodities, developing expertise in farm-level carbon accounting, MRV platform usage, voluntary and compliance market schemes, science-based targets, ESG reporting, and strategic planning.