nov-dec-2019

CULTIVATING SUSTAINABILITY Competitors Agree: GHG Action Along Supply Chains Is Good for Business Still wondering why Blue Diamond is asking for your farm practice information ? It’s important to outline some of our top customer sustainable supply chain initiatives which require data collected from their suppliers. The focus is primarily on greenhouse gas emissions, but water and waste are just as important to these companies. As a quick primer, it’s important to know the definitions of Scope emissions. The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard (a nonprofit standards body ghgprotocol.com) classifies a company’s GHG emissions into three “scopes:” • Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from owned or controlled sources. • Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy (ie electricity). • Scope 3 emissions are all indirect emissions (not included in scope 2) that occur in the value chain of the reporting company, including both upstream and downstream emissions. This information is being reprinted with permission by author Julie Nash, Ph.D. and Ceres. Ceres is a sustainability nonprofit organization working with investors and companies to build leadership and drive solutions throughout the economy. Extreme weather events cost the global economy a record $320 billion in 2017. Food systems are experiencing more shocks than ever before, yet they also cause about one quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. Eager to slow climate change and decrease their own carbon footprints, major food companies are expanding sustainability commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their supply chains. In fact, major brands that compete in the same marketplace are transcending rivalries and increasingly committing to climate change mitigation and environmental sustainability by reducing their biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions: Scope 3. Scope 3 emissions, indirect emissions that occur in a company’s value chain, are challenging to estimate and manage. In the food and beverage sector, most Scope 3 emissions come from agriculture, so companies often achieve Scope 3 emission reductions through improved agricultural practices and efficient management systems. Here’s how six well-known rivals are committing to reducing supply chain emissions. Target andWalmart Two of the most widely recognized brands in the U.S. retail market, Target and Walmart continue to grow as they compete for customers in stores and online. The breadth and volume of their retail food offerings translate into tremendous potential to influence emission reductions along multiple supply chains. • Through the Science Based Targets initiative, Walmart aims to reduce direct emissions by 18 percent by 2025 (from 2015 levels), reducing emissions by 4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, which is the roughly the same as taking about 900,000 cars off the road annually. But most importantly, Walmart is working with suppliers to reduce emissions by 1 gigaton (1 billion tons!) from the production and use of the products it sells between 2015 and 2030; that’s the equivalent of taking 214 million cars off the road for a year. One way Walmart intends to achieve this target is by working with farmers to use fertilizer optimization plans and best management practices on 76 million committed acres of U.S. farmland by 2025. • Last year, Target committed to developing science- based targets for Scopes 1, 2 and 3 emissions to align its corporate goals with the Paris Agreement. As a first step, Target set goals to reduce its absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent below 2015 levels by 2025, and to implement projects in its 2 4 A L M O N D F A C T S