Foodservice companies, food manufacturers and supermarkets have joined a new coalition in a bid to standardise carbon reporting across the sector.
Led by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and tech company Mondra, the coalition will establish a “unified industry standard and tech-driven platform to monitor, improve and communicate the environmental performance of products”.
Currently, a range of different approaches and methods are used by food businesses to measure the carbon footprint of food and drink products. Scope 3 emissions, in particular, have caused problems, resulting in confusion and inefficiencies across the sector, and placing huge burdens on suppliers. There is also growing mistrust in reporting of environmental data.
The new coalition claims to have the solution. Mondra’s AI-driven technology enables food brand owners and suppliers to run life cycle assessments (LCAs) on “thousands of products in a matter of hours, prioritise action, and each engage their suppliers in a meaningful way to reduce impacts”.
One discrete workstream, called ‘Farm data done better’ and led by consultants 3Keel, will be focused on the best routes to incorporate farm-stage carbon data for product footprints.
Mondra CEO and founder Jason Barrett said: “Our ambition is to establish the digital infrastructure for future food systems, enabling brand owners and their suppliers to measure and improve the environmental performance of their products – doing so collaboratively through the chain.”
Starbucks and Nando’s are both signed up, as are suppliers Avara, Samworth Brothers, Greencore, Bakkavor, Pilgrims UK, Dunbia and Cranswick. Participating retailers include Tesco, M&S, Ocado Retail and ASDA. Sainsbury’s, Lidl and Co-op are also piloting the system.
“We’re fired up to play our part in getting better supply chain emissions data, that’s collected and reported in the same way across the food and drink industry,” said Nando’s head of sustainability Sam McCarthy.
The government has been planning a mandatory system of scope 3 emissions reporting for all major food companies. This was expected to be unveiled at COP28, according to reports, but failed to materialise.
Mondra told Footprint that Wrap, WWF and Defra (though its food data transparency partnership) are all also part of the coalition’s technical advisory group. It is not clear how the new coalition aligns with the work started by Wrap and WWF earlier this year, however.
The coalition is distinct from the WWF shopping basket initiative, which aims to halve the environmental impact of UK shopping baskets by 2030. A recent update on progress showed scope 3 emissions reporting as a considerable challenge for those involved; and there was no progress of note in reducing these emissions, which make up the lion’s share of food company footprints.
It is hoped that a consistent reporting standard will help restore confidence in the data and drive change. Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the BRC, said: “By bringing food retailers and suppliers together under a single unified approach to carbon footprinting, the BRC Mondra coalition has the potential to help businesses make more sustainable decisions surrounding how food is made, packaged, transported and sold in the UK and beyond.”
Separately, the IGD is working on consistent reporting for a new front-of-pack ecolabel. Rather than having competing schemes, the plan is (again) to bring the food sector behind one unified label.
Products will receive an overall score based on a life cycle assessment approach covering climate change, water use, water quality and land use impact categories. IGD has said the methodology will be subject to change as new scientific evidence becomes available.
However, NGOs including Clear, the Sustainable Food Trust and Compassion in World Farming have said the approach is too simplistic.
