The Cool Farm Institute has announced that it will soon introduce a free online version of its Cool Farm Tool to help farmers calculate the carbon footprint of their farm and livestock operations. The institute currently provides a free spreadsheet-based calculator originally developed by Unilever and the University of Aberdeen. The new online version will be developed jointly by two environmental consultancies, Best Foot Forward and CLM.
According to the institute, the existing version of the Cool Farm Tool is “designed to be simple to use, but scientifically robust in the complex arena of carbon accounting.” A number of multinational companies are using it to help their suppliers in the measurement and management of their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The calculator is based on a variety of published data sets on GHGs. It identifies “hotspots” in growers’ operations and “makes it easy for farmers to test alternative management scenarios and [identify] those that will have a positive impact on the total net greenhouse gas emissions.”
The Cool Farm Institute is a nonprofit organization originally started by Unilever and the Sustainable Food Laboratory and it’s now supported by a consortium of companies including Unilever, Heinz, Sysco, Ben & Jerry’s, Heineken, Stonyfield Farm Organic, Yara, Marks & Spencer, PepsiCo, Pulse Canada, GIZ, CCGA, Ambootia, Costco Wholesale, Oxfam, Sekem, and Ecom Coffee. The mission of the institute is to help growers around the globe reduce their environmental impact.
+ Cool Farm Institute
Photo credit: fishhawk, CC BY 2.0. Screenshot: Cool Farm Institute.