With most agri-food emissions embedded in supply chains, companies need credible ways to reduce and remove them. We partnered with Conservation International to define high-integrity insetting, shaping principles that can enable investment to deliver benefits for climate, nature and people.

Closing the gap between corporate climate goals and action on the ground

With value-chain emissions comprising over 90% of agri-food companies’ carbon footprints, there is an urgent need to address carbon reduction in forest, land and agriculture (FLAG) sectors.

At the same time, there is great potential for the agri-food sector to implement nature-based solutions and activities to reduce emissions within supply chains. These activities can be referred to as ‘insetting’.

Voluntary standards and regulation, such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures and the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, are putting pressure on companies to act within their supply chains. However, there remains a critical funding gap for insetting.

A lack of clear definitions, standards and best-practice guidance has so far hindered progress, impeded collaborative action, and limited investment opportunities.

One particular challenge is that of following greenhouse-gas (GHG) accounting boundaries for ‘Within Value Chain Mitigation’. This includes the need for high levels of traceability to claim any impacts. There are also uncertainties around how to claim project outcomes – for example, between companies in shared sourcing locations, when only purchasing co-products from a crop, or when supporting landscape-level actions.

Conservation International’s vision for credible insetting

Conservation International is a global non-profit working across 30 countries on six continents to address the most critical threats to the natural world. The organisation places a strong emphasis on working collaboratively with local communities, governments, the private sector and other NGOs.

Conservation International wanted to address some of these insetting challenges and to galvanise action. They set out to provide a clear definition and principles for high-integrity ‘insetting’ to guide companies and wider stakeholders, to catalyse investment in supply chains that support global climate goals, and to deliver positive impacts for nature and people.

Through extensive stakeholder engagement, comprehensive research and convening an expert advisory group, we helped the NGO to publish a comprehensive public report with the endorsement of 25 organisations: Principles for High Integrity Insetting in the Land Sector. This case study highlights what was involved and the next steps to putting the principles into action.

Shaping a shared vision for credible insetting

Conservation International aimed to clarify and support a definition of insetting that extends beyond strict GHG accounting boundaries.

The organisation also wanted to drive action and collaboration by providing a set of best-practice principles to guide companies and wider stakeholders, enabling companies to invest in their supply chains and meet global goals on emissions reductions in FLAG sectors.

The NGO turned to 3Keel for two primary reasons:

1. For help developing a call for stakeholders to support and catalyse action on high-integrity insetting
2. To broaden the focus of insetting away from meeting GHG accounting rules, towards collaborative investments in FLAG-sector transformation across sourcing landscapes.

Conservation International wanted to move beyond the current focus on carbon mitigation and to consider holistic opportunities for improving livelihoods and the state of nature in sourcing landscapes as well as building resilience and reducing risk in supply chains.