Data-driven sustainability

New research projects aim to quantify some of the positive and negative effects of the deciduous-fruit value chain. By Anna Mouton.

Sustainable agriculture starts with identifying our impacts, but that isn’t enough by itself. We also need numbers to prioritise our improvement efforts and to measure the results. This is why two recently launched Hortgro-funded projects are applying cutting-edge modelling to better understand sustainability in the deciduous-fruit industry.

Specialist sustainability consultancy Blue North is leading the projects. Blue North COO Eddie Vienings and Commercial Director Anél Blignaut spoke to Fresh Quarterly about how the results will support the South African pome- and stone-fruit industry.

Do orchard soils sequester carbon?

Retailers and regulators in export markets, such as the United Kingdom and the European Union, are pressuring South African growers to report and reduce their carbon footprint. Many growers have been asking whether they should receive more credit for the carbon taken up by their orchard soils.

After all, growers are increasingly adopting practices such as composting and mulching to reduce water consumption and boost soil health. Adding organic matter builds soil carbon levels — but does this count as a form of carbon sequestration?

“We’ve been measuring carbon emissions for a long time, and we understand them very well,” says Vienings. “But now we need to measure carbon removal — how much CO₂ is being drawn out of the atmosphere.”

When it comes to mitigating climate change, reducing emissions must remain the primary goal, as it dwarfs the contribution of carbon sequestration. However, businesses are unlikely to reach net zero through cutting emissions.

“They will have residual emissions that they can’t reduce, so they will need to use removals to offset the last few percent,” explains Vienings. If businesses have no removals, they will have to purchase carbon credits.

Credible carbon accounting

Greenhouse Gas Protocol is an international organisation that develops the most widely used standards and tools for measuring carbon emissions and removals. They are currently working on guidelines for measuring CO₂ removals and storage in soil. Blignaut and Vienings plan to test this methodology in a pilot study in a South African pome-fruit orchard.

They will be working with a farm that already measures soil carbon and applying Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s methodology to this data.

“It’s a very comprehensive and specific guideline,” says Blignaut. “It might not fit the way farmers currently measure soil carbon, but we need to work through the methodology at least once so we can learn how to take this forward as an industry.”

The results will be interpreted in relation to the Forest, Land and Agriculture targets from the Science Based Targets initiative. Science Based Targets is a global climate organisation that helps companies set goals and measure progress toward mitigating climate change and achieving net zero by 2050.

“We can use Science Based Targets to set a reduction pathway. While on that pathway, we need to keep using the Greenhouse Gas Protocol methods to measure our progress consistently and credibly,” says Vienings.

“This project will show us what challenges and costs are associated with measuring soil carbon removals,” he summarises. Although he doesn’t expect this to be easy, our industry will need this information to demonstrate our sustainability both locally and abroad.

The life cycle impacts of fruit

Most pome- and stone-fruit growers associate life cycles with pests and diseases, but it turns out their fruit also has a life cycle, and Blignaut and Vienings intend to study it.

“Life cycle assessments started with product carbon footprints — the amount of carbon released when accounting for the whole supply chain,” says Vienings. “Nowadays, other elements are also important, so we measure 16 different aspects in a life cycle assessment.”

Besides greenhouse gas emissions, the fruit life cycle assessment will include impacts such as water use, pesticide-related pollution, land use, and waste production.

The new project will investigate apples and one stone-fruit type, and include production, packing, storage, transport, and retail. The researchers will build and populate a supply chain model in software that’s specifically designed for life cycle assessments.

Input data includes everything from average application rates for fertilisers, pesticides, and water, to the average transportation distances within South Africa and to major export markets.

“It’s not easy to get all the data, because there are many different players in the supply chain,” says Vienings. Among other sources, they will draw on the Confronting Climate Change (CCC) database.

Our industry at the forefront

When Blignaut and Vienings talk about a life cycle assessment, they really mean it. The software used to build their model is backed by a database of scientifically grounded emission factors, allowing them to quantify every step, from orchard establishment to supermarket shelf.

For example, the shipping emission factor includes not only direct energy use but also the environmental impact of the ship itself, right back to mining the steel it’s made from.

In the case of supermarkets, there are factors to account for the time the fruit spends sitting on the shelf. “There have been many studies on retailers and fresh produce in every possible category, looking at factors such as shelf space and refrigeration efficiency,” says Vienings.

The complexity of all these details is why you need specialised software and a fairly powerful computer. “Running the model gives you enough time to go make yourself coffee,” Vienings jokes.

One benefit of life cycle assessment is that it provides a complete picture of the supply chain’s footprint. “You must know what all your impacts are, and not have carbon tunnel-vision,” says Blignaut. “Then you can identify hot spots and prioritise the real issues as an industry.”

By changing some of the input variables, it’s possible to quantify how different interventions affect different environmental outcomes, thereby supporting rational decision-making.

This work will also help our industry meet reporting obligations and prepare for the likely implementation of Product Environmental Footprint labelling by the European Union, which is based on life cycle assessments.

Vienings compares the life cycle assessment work to the award-winning CCC initiative, started by South African fruit and wine industries in 2008. Subsequently, exporters have been able to use the CCC benchmark reports to help satisfy retailers and regulators that our industries are working to reduce their carbon footprint.

“Confronting Climate Change was absolutely cutting-edge. No other perennial tree-crop industry was doing this,” says Vienings. “It gave us an advantage — you want to be at the forefront as an industry.”