The transition to net zero will require a united front across sectors – including agriculture. For UK farmers, that will mean collectively working towards sustainability goals that can be quantified and measured, not only to judge progress but to provide insight that can drive continuous improvements.
Until now, understanding whether efforts to improve sustainability on farms are working has been challenging due to the many disparate reporting platforms, standards and measurement frameworks farmers are required to use. These often duplicate efforts while making it difficult for others in the supply chain, like retailers, to compare data.
Rebecca Schofield, a produce technical manager at Tesco, explains: “We were always given data and information from our suppliers on carbon neutrality and what they’re doing to make efficiencies, but it was very difficult for us to analyse because we had so many different schemes and standards being presented to us.”
Three years ago, Tesco made the decision to build a partnership with the Linking Environment and Farming (LEAF) Marque certification scheme, and work with them to drive higher sustainability standards. “Growers want to protect their land to pass on to the next generation,” Schofield said. “Progressive businesses and growers are already actively doing the work to protect their water sources, biodiversity, nature and doing what they can to ensure they have a better product to sell. The LEAF audit process is a way to formalise this and to drive continuous improvement.”
Huntapac is one example of a business already doing the work. The fourth-generation family-owned business has been supplying Tesco for over 50 years with a range of root veg, and is now fully LEAF certified as well as being a LEAF demonstration farm.
Huntapac’s technical director, Stephen Shields, outlines the benefits of common standards: “I think if data is standardised and it’s consistent, then it offers a level of fairness. You’ve not got an outlier that’s showing a significant carbon reduction because they’re using a different platform.”
Growers have reported that LEAF standards are encouraging them to find different ways of doing things. “In the UK, all of Tesco growers are now LEAF Marque certified, and the ambition is that all our rest-of-the-world growers will be certified by the end of the year,” Schofield says.
For Tesco, the information from LEAF helps identify areas to focus on and better support growers, giving them access to the relevant experts. “It’s about evolving together, continuous improvement and not penalising people,” Shields explains.
However, despite the success of the LEAF Marque, there is still more that can be done. Huntapac must complete around 15 environmental audits each year across different customers and different standards. “What we’d like to see is simplification of audits, so you’re not having to duplicate a lot of the information that you’re submitting. I think introducing platforms and using technology to host data somewhere that multiple stakeholders could access would help,” says Shields.
Tesco is looking to support farmers with this: as part of its Greenprint for UK Farming report, it has called on the government to agree a common set of reporting metrics and the establishment of a carbon reporting hub to streamline data collection, ultimately helping them get the insights they need to get to net zero.
“A Greenprint for UK Farming: Working in Partnership with UK Farmers to Deliver a More Sustainable Food System” can be found at: www.tescoplc.com/greenprint-report
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