GHG Accouting with the Cool-Farm Tool.

Agriculture contributes significantly to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but is also a potential sink for carbon. Multinational companies in the food and beverage sector are increasingly called upon to drive mitigation of GHG emissions. In analyzing the environmental impacts of their food products, companies discover that the majority of emissions occur on the farm. Yet these analyses do not provide a breakdown of agricultural emissions to allow farmers to explore what they can do about it. Farm-level GHG abatement measures are available (cover crops, reduced tillage, tailored crop rotations) and many provide multiple benefits beyond climate change mitigation and adaptation. The challenge for companies, is to engage farmers throughout their supply chains and identify practical mitigation options that fit their farm. The Cool Farm Tool fills this gap. Used globally in more then 60 countries on a wide variety of crops and on 10s of thousands of farms, the tool allows farmers to quantify emissions from their farm operations, and identify options to reduce them. The Tool is owned by the Cool Farm Alliance, a pre-competitive industry platform comprised of many of the world’s largest companies and NGOs. While using the tool in their supply chains to drive reductions in GHG emissions, members benefit from a cost-effective solution to the shared problem of bringing the best that science has to offer to the field where changes need to take place. The Cool Farm Tool has recently added a biodiversity module for North West Europe and the temperate forested biome of North America. A water metric is currently being added.