Farming for a Better Climate

Determining the carbon footprint of a business is an essential first step in quantifying its impact on climate change.

A carbon audit will identify the type, extent and source of emissions from the business and identify opportunities where greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced.  Lowering emissions can benefit businesses by reducing costs and can have additional benefits such as increased sales through improved marketing.

Emissions at a farm level arise from the use of fossil fuels and manufactured inputs, by-products of animal digestion, cultivation of soils and changes in land use and vegetation.  Beyond the farm gate agri-food chains also emit greenhouse gases through activities such as processing, packaging, waste management and haulage.  Carbon auditing can be completed for a farm, supply chain or product.

The whole farm approach is useful for farmers wanting to measure their carbon footprint for benchmarking purposes and as a basis to develop strategies for reducing emissions.  Life cycle analysis can be used to measure emissions from a product.  In both instances the calcuations use internationally agreed guidelines and emissions factors although it is recognised that emissions such as methane from animals and nitrous oxide from fertlisers can be affected by a number of different factors.

There are a number of free auditing tools available and consultancies including SAC have also developed their own tools.  If you want to complete a farm carbon audit there are a number of steps to follow:

• Determine the extent of the farm you want to measure, eg the whole farm or an enterprise
• Collect data on inputs and land use such as electricity, gas and fuel use; livestock and cropping; use of inorganic and organic fertiliser; recent changes in land use and; the extent of woodlands on the farm
• Choose an appropriate calculator and input the data or secure the services on a consultant to do this for you
• Interpret the output to compare with other farms and identify how and where emissions can be reduced

Reducing emissions will help improve the efficiency of the business.

There are links to two related websites on the right hand side of this page, which provide free carbon calculators.