esco’s work on full value chain carbon footprinting has demonstrated the importance of sustainability in the agricultural supply chain. To assist its primary producers to understand and reduce their emissions, which will in turn help Tesco to meet its climate targets, Tesco needed support to trial the roll out of the use of the Cool Farm Tool with a subset of its fresh produce supply chain.

The Cool Farm Tool (CFT) is an on-farm greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions calculator developed and managed by the Cool Farm Alliance, a membership organisation for food business to enhance on-farm sustainability in their supply chains. 3Keel and Tesco are both members of the Alliance.   

3Keel was commissioned to help Tesco test a roll-out of the CFT with major suppliers of fresh produce. The objectives were to: assess CFT use and completion by growers with modest support; analyse and interpret CFT footprint results; and provide recommendations for scaling up CFT use across Tesco’s supply chain.

For the project we worked with major suppliers of tomatoes, potatoes, celery, lettuce, peppers, aubergines, green beans, sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower. Growers were supported in collecting data and filling out the Tool by the 3Keel team by phone and email. Data was then aggregated in each sector and analysed to determine trends, comparative performance and hotspots for reductions.

The final outputs identified reduction opportunities in each sector. Challenges encountered by suppliers in using the Tool were captured and recommendations were developed by us to inform a wider Tesco roll-out of the Tool. Individual supplier reports were also prepared to feedback findings and recommendations on emissions reductions. Tesco presented the results of the project at the CFA Annual Meeting in 2017.