Scope 3 Emissions Management Made Easier for Food and Beverage Companies by Savvy Suppliers - Seite 2

One key area of progress is demonstrated by the adoption of sustainable and regenerative agriculture practices that help sequester carbon and reduce the reliance on emissions-producing fertilizer. "Scientists have estimated that soils - mostly, agricultural ones - could sequester over a billion additional tons of carbon each year," notes the MIT Climate Portal.

Encouraging and enabling farmers to grow more resilient crops that produce less greenhouse gas emissions is another key factor in managing scope 3 emissions from a company's value chain. Solutions in the emissions-differentiated crop area include reducing emissions from fertilizer as well as crop rotation diversity.

Streamlining the Scope 3 pathway from field to food and beverage companies

Connecting climate-smart farms with food and beverage companies more efficiently is the next step, and that's where Bunge's partnership with Indigo Ag comes in. Now operating in 14 countries, Indigo Ag launched in 2013 with a science-based platform to support and quantify the impact of regenerative practices.

Rather than incorporating suppliers as an afterthought in carbon accounting, Indigo Ag treats them as the focal point for progress.

"The solution was to look at suppliers like Bunge as the fulcrum of a full ecosystem approach," Malone said. "Food and beverage companies are not buying crops from the field. They are buying processed ingredients. Suppliers like Bunge are the ideal point where a program can be created to measure the carbon score of those ingredients."

Scope 3 benefits and a holistic supply chain

Bunge's close connection to the grower experience was an important factor in the company's decision to engage in a technology partnership with Indigo Ag.

"Across our business, we've adopted a carbon-focused decision-making process," Christensen said. "We are striving to bring a climate-focused lens to everything we do, and a big part of that is contributing to innovative solutions."

In particular to the partnership, "what was intriguing was the ease of data collection and the speed to implementation," he explained. "Data collection can be a very heavy lift for the growers. There are many different programs out there, so finding one that centers on the grower experience is critical. Indigo Ag provides rigor in terms of methodology and in terms of outcomes."

Empowering the food systems middle-person for rapid decarbonization

The full ecosystem model enables suppliers to provide carbon benefits to food and beverage companies while building their relationships with growers into a more connected, holistic endeavor, Christensen said.