A lack of carbon literacy can be an obstacle for net zero journeys even for large businesses with fully staffed sustainability teams. But for smaller retailers that prioritise locally-grown or organic food, the challenges are manifold. Ethical retail network Better Food Traders set out to address this, with funding from AFN Network+, and to better understand how these businesses contribute to net zero. To do this, they worked with an SME food retailer to calculate a baseline year of carbon emissions associated with their operations, as well as compiling knowledge from 32 other small businesses, five carbon consultants and analysis of carbon frameworks.
“The AFN Network+ FlexFund has helped us co-create a very impactful research project on the carbon emissions of local food. We’ve found out that most carbon calculations significantly overestimate the Scope 3 emissions associated with domestic, organic food, thus revealing a research gap that urgently needs to be addressed.” Hattie Hammans, project lead at Better Food Traders.
The project found that currently available tools are not sufficient for local food businesses to produce a reliable footprint. As project lead Hattie Hammans puts it: “We’ve found out that most carbon calculations significantly overestimate the Scope 3 emissions associated with domestic, organic food, thus revealing a research gap that urgently needs to be addressed.” In essence, the project has revealed how businesses that invest in supporting carbon-neutral farming practices are unable to demonstrate their climate advantage, because of a lack of specific and rigorous data.
To further emphasise the gap in research, the team presented their findings, and recommendations for a free online carbon calculator with specific emission factors, to an audience of academics and experts from within the AFN+ community. Consolidating the impact, an accessible toolkit is now available to any retailer to help calculate their emissions, allowing them to make impactful decisions across their business to make the greatest reductions in an efficient manner. This has been informed by expertise from carbon consultants, collated by Better Food Traders as part of this project, including how to adapt methodology to accurately capture the emissions of local food businesses.
By identifying that carbon accounting among food businesses already prioritising the environment through buying organic or local food is a crucial missing link, this project combined extensive research, engagement and presentation of results in a way that could enable a highly motivated community to take part more efficiently in the transition to net zero, as part of a wider food system transition.
The project has provided a launchpad for further collaborations, as Better Food Traders is now actively seeking researchers and civil society organisations to help improve the landscape for small businesses in terms of carbon estimates, and to ultimately facilitate carbon reductions in this sector.
