Research and Development Corporations join forces to create ‘whole industry’ carbon calculator

Australia’s biggest rural Research and Development Corporations are putting their heads together to develop a “whole industry” digital platform to calculate businesses’ carbon footprint across multiple commodities. The new tool is being designed by Agricultural Innovation Australia with farmers, fishers and foresters in mind. The non-for-profit organisation was created in October 2020 with the nation’s 15 RDCs its founding members and the goal of attracting joint investment in agricultural innovation. Labelled an “environmental accounting platform”, the tool will enable growers to baseline and benchmark their enterprise and use scenario planning to aid decision-making on reducing carbon emissions. RDCs investing in the platform include Grains Research and Development Corporation, Meat and Livestock Australia, Australian Eggs, Australian Pork Limited, and AgriFutures Australia. AIA chief executive Sam Brown said the platform would provide a widely-accessible and standardised implementation of carbon footprint calculation models. “As a not-for-profit, AIA has focused on a pre-competitive platform designed to integrate with channels that growers already use and trust,” he said. “This includes farm management software, agricultural services provider offerings, agri-finance and others. “Understanding and sharing carbon footprint data can support market access, carbon market opportunities and provide growers with increased confidence in conversations with financial institutions around ESG, natural capital and asset management.” Mr Brown said platform users would be able to share their data with their advisors and consultants, supply-chain partners, financial institutions or other organisations of their choice. Users will retain control over their data, including when and who they choose to share it with. Initially, AIA’s platform will digitise and house the University of Melbourne’s Primary Industry Climate Challenges Centre Greenhouse Accounting Frameworks for Australian Primary Industries. Developed by greenhouse accounting expert, Professor Richard Eckard, these tools are aligned to the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory reporting protocol, and also compliant with ISO standards and the GHG protocol. Mr Brown said the GAF spreadsheets were a logical starting point for AIA’s environmental accounting platform. Prof. Eckard said the platform would help Australia avoid the pitfalls other countries had struggled with in the carbon foot print space. “AIA’s whole of agriculture, fisheries and forestry solution approach will help Australia avoid the fragmentation, duplication and inconsistencies seen in other markets that have a proliferation of carbon calculators,” he said. Agtuary, a leading developer of digital tools, workflows, and analytics for agriculture and environment, was selected by AIA to build the platform. AIA’s environmental accounting platform will be built during the next six months, with user testing and piloting planned for later this year. AIA is on the hunt for investors and partners to either connect to, or build it into their own service offerings. Mr Brown said several commercial supply chain companies and financial institutions had already expressed interest.