Solution providers offer strategies
There are more and more solution providers that can help produce operators measure their carbon footprint and offer other value-added services relating to climate change.
Rachel Kenyon, senior vice president for The Fibre Box Association, said the group works with its member companies to measure environmental impacts of the average corrugated container through periodic, third-party/peer-reviewed life cycle assessments. She said the organization also annually updates recovery rates to measure corrugated recovery for recycling.
Himanshu Gupta, CEO and co-founder of ClimateAi, said the company is a technology provider focused on helping food and ag companies improve the climate resilience of their supply chains. Gupta defined climate resilience as “making smarter decisions around the weather.”
“Doing so is often a huge driver of emissions reduction, e.g., minimize fertilizer runoff/waste, optimal planting date = avoid key risks in season = more yield per inputs, better yield/quality forecasts = more efficient supply chain = less food waste, etc.,” he said.
“We are also exploring adapting our algorithms to forecast carbon sequestration.”
Heber City, Utah-based Fusionware offers software that provides insights and direction on a company’s carbon footprint, said Ryan Barton, owner. He said company started its efforts with its customers utilizing regenerative agriculture and anticipates working with third parties and leaders in the space in 2021.
Miago Produce Industry Services is a third-party service provider to produce supply chain players and measures, tracks and reports CO2 footprints for multiple clients, said Michael Agostini, owner.
“We have created detailed matrices into which we enter relevant inputs from a growing operation,” he said. “It outputs CO2 footprint in total and by component parts.”
Produce companies take a variety of approaches to sustainability
Commitment steady but focus shifts for environmental efforts
Measuring carbon footprint becoming more common for produce suppliers
