Working towards halving food loss and waste by 2030 will help food and beverage companies mitigate their GHGs across all scopes. Supply chain collaborations and
engagements that yield multiple environmental benefits are critical.
As we close out Earth Month, it seems only fitting to discuss one of the
most complicated issues with greenhouse gas accounting in our nation’s food and
beverage supply chains — Scope 3 emissions and the potential solutions.
For the past 43 years, we have celebrated Earth Day on April 22; and as the
climate crisis continues to grow, it has become a month-long global appeal
during which we ask our world leaders, businesses, scientists and every one of
us to do more and demand that we do better for our home.
One way to help mitigate the climate crisis is by addressing our Scope 3
emissions
with solutions that have multiple environmental benefits.
The challenge: Understanding Scope 3 emissions
The call for corporations to lessen their environmental impact through
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions continues to grow louder. In 2021,
scientists found that the concentration of CO₂ in the planet's atmosphere is at
the highest number in human history at 416 parts per
million.
Global leaders and consumers alike are stating the importance of emissions
reductions through both legislation and the marketplace. Faced with new
guidelines, and to meet their companies’ corporate sustainability goals,
businesses are turning to carbon reporting to identify and measure where
emissions occur — increasing the focus on indirect emissions that occur in
company supply chains.
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The GHG
Protocol,
introduced in 2001, is a widely used standard for sustainability reporting. It
distinguishes an entity’s indirect and direct emissions into three scopes: Scope
1 (direct use of energy — ex: natural gas, diesel fuel, gasoline) and 2
(indirect use of energy — ex: electricity) are the emissions that are owned or
purchased by an entity. Due to the direct ownership of and control over scope 1
and 2 emissions, they are easier to identify and quantify — often making them
part of a company’s primary reduction goals. On the other hand, Scope 3
emissions are indirect emissions from the company’s activities throughout its
supply chain — including suppliers and consumers. As a result, Scope 3 emissions
are the largest portion of emissions, and are hardest to account for and
reduce.
Scope 3 emissions often account for more than 70 percent of total carbon
emissions
for many businesses; so, it is of the utmost importance for companies to assess
and address them. For instance, a company can design products meant to be
composted or recycled after use to improve use and end-use emissions. But an
unaware consumer may dispose of the product in the garbage, thereby defeating
the company's sustainability efforts and the materials’ intended use. A
company’s efforts to tackle its Scope 3 emissions need to involve its existing
suppliers and customers, necessitating education with every person that is part
of its value chain.
The role of the food and beverage industry in addressing Scope 3 emissions
Like other industries, food and beverage value chains have significant Scope 3
emissions. Every year, approximately one-third of the edible food created is
lost or wasted. Once food reaches the landfill, all the processes involved in
its production, transportation, storage and more are also wasted. Operations
involved with the value chain and the decomposition of food in the landfill
generate harmful GHGs.
The problem is so dire that the food and beverage industry are being called upon
by both national and global bodies to halve food loss and waste by
2030.
With the help of programs such as the USDA’s Greenhouse Gas Accounting and
Mitigation
initiative, the US EPA’s GHG Inventory
Development
program and United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal
12, companies can find the guidance they need
to achieve this goal. Additionally, working towards halving food loss and waste
will help food and beverage companies mitigate their GHGs across all scopes.
It’s a daunting task, but there are solutions.
A Farm Powered® solution
In the shift to redirect organic waste from landfills and incineration,
Vanguard Renewables’ anaerobic digestion
and organics recycling areas provide a solution to our national food-waste
problem while displacing fossil fuels with renewable energy. Vanguard Renewables
combines food waste from food and beverage manufacturers and manure from
multi-generational dairy farms in a Farm Powered anaerobic digester — which
convert the sugars, fats and other compounds into biogas. This biogas is
captured, cleaned to renewable natural gas (RNG) standards, and converted into
renewable energy and low-carbon fertilizer for crop applications.
Sequestering organic food and beverage waste and cow manure captures as much as
95 percent of the potential GHGs that would result if the waste was sent to a
landfill, or if the farm manure was stored long-term in lagoons. Recycling food
waste allows companies to offset emissions from unowned or unoperated parts of
their value chain.
Food and beverage companies leading the way
Multinational brewer AB InBev is a striving to achieve net-zero
emissions across its
value chain by 2040. To achieve this, the company developed a timeline aligned
with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°
pathway
to ensure that its sustainability goals — including eliminating 25 percent of
all scope 1-3
emissions
by 2025 — stay on track. Through a study conducted in 2021, AB InBev estimated
that Scope 3 emissions represented 85 percent of their total
footprint, leading it
to engage with value chain partners ranging from suppliers to farmers to
collaborate on solutions that reduce GHG emissions, promote
regenerative-agriculture
practices,
and improve climate resilience.
In another example, in 2020 Smithfield Foods
announced
a 2030 goal to achieve carbon negativity and a 25 percent emissions reduction
across scopes 1-3 by 2025. The company’s emissions-reduction goal coincides with
its commitment to halve food loss and waste by 2030 as a member of Champions
12.3.
Smithfield Foods sees renewable energy as key to achieving its carbon-reduction
goals; it has targeted obtaining 50 percent of electricity
needs from renewable resources by
2030. Much like Vanguard Renewables, Smithfield is committed to improving
the lives of farmers throughout its supply chain by implementing sustainable
business and farming
practices.
In 2022, the company joined the Farm Powered Strategic
Alliance
(FPSA) — launched in 2020 by Vanguard, Starbucks, Dairy Farmers of
America and Unilever — which brings together major food and beverage
manufacturers to boost food waste reduction and recycling and expand renewable
energy production across the US.
Closing thoughts
No business can tackle its GHG footprint alone; companies must provide
leadership in engagement toward sustainable solutions. But no matter the size of
a company, every business has a responsibility to track and reduce its GHG
emissions. Enacting sustainable solutions requires cooperation and collaboration
between all entities in a company’s value chain. Pre-competitive, cross-industry
alliances such as the FPSA are a great tool to engage in real solutions and
collaborate with like-minded businesses also determined to meet sustainability
goals. But external best practices need to be adapted into companies’ internal
business models; food companies can succeed by helping all members of their
supply chain to make sustainable
improvements.
With the irreversible effects of climate change looming, tackling the enormous
amount of Scope 3 emissions in the food value chain and beyond is a daunting
task. However, supply chain collaborations and engagements that yield impactful
results are critical.
Published Apr 27, 2023 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST
David Darr is Chief Sustainability Officer at Vanguard Renewables. He has over 20 years of experience working with dairy farmers around the country to implement sustainable and regenerative farming practices.
Most recently, Darr served as the SVP and Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer for the Dairy Farmers of America. He holds both a BS and MS in Agriculture Economics from Ohio State University, and an MBA from Rockhurst University.
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