Agri-footprint

Terrascope, a Singapore-based carbon measurement and management platform, could not split land-related emissions for its agri-food customers: existing emission factor databases lacked a breakdown of Forest, Land and Agriculture (FLAG) emissions such as land-use change and land management. Agri-footprint FLAG became the data behind its FLAG module. Terrascope has since helped companies in food, snacks and retail measure their FLAG emissions and set separate targets under the SBTi guidelines. One global food ingredient supplier re-baselined its GHG inventory across dozens of countries, thousands of suppliers and hundreds of facilities in less than 4 weeks.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) needed consistent footprint data to compare food products across Europe, where professionals had relied on fragmented sources with different methods. Mérieux NutriSciences | Blonk built the European Environmental Footprint of Food (EFF) database with RIVM, the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, using publicly available ELCD and Agri-footprint datasets as background life cycle inventory data. The database follows the EU PEF method, models products from cradle to supermarket and cradle to grave, was critically reviewed by RIVM experts and is open access.

Donau Soja, a non-profit supported by 19 governments and more than 300 members, sets standards for GMO-free soy grown in Europe and wanted buyers to see the environmental performance of certified soybeans. Blonk collected primary data on a defined set of representative farms producing to the Donau Soja / Europe Soya standard: yields, synthetic and organic fertilisers, pesticides, irrigation, fuel use, land occupation and land-use change. The resulting LCA datasets, aligned with Agri-footprint 7, are freely available as CSV files for SimaPro, so feed and food companies can use country-specific soy data and spot hotspots in the chain.

The European Animal Protein Association (EAPA) represents companies that produce natural animal proteins, including plasma and hemoglobin powders made from blood collected in the meat chain and used in feed. EAPA asked Blonk to align its sector data, previously published in the GFLI database, with Agri-footprint. The datasets model these co-products with mass, economic and energy allocation, and are now publicly available, giving feed manufacturers representative European data for these ingredients.

• Sector datasets aligned with Agri-footprint 7
• Mass, economic and energy allocation all modelled
• Publicly available as a CSV file for SimaPro

VEOS Group turns egg residues from hatcheries, graders and processing plants into feed-grade egg powder. To support transparency across the sector, it asked Blonk to align the European average footprint of this ingredient, previously published in the GFLI database, with the Agri-footprint 7 framework. The inventory was recalculated with Agri-footprint 7.0.1 and ecoinvent 3.11 background data, and the European averages are now open to everyone.

• European averages recalculated on current background data
• Mass, economic and energy allocation all modelled
• Publicly available as a CSV file for SimaPro