How the food and drink industry can move from ambition to action on Scope 3 — without waiting for perfect data.

A third of all global greenhouse gas emissions can be traced back to the food and drink industry. Our latest webinar, hosted in partnership with Carbon Maps, brought together four of the industry's most experienced voices to confront this challenge head-on — and explore what it actually takes to move from ambition to action.

What followed was a candid, practical conversation about what's working, what isn't, and what needs to change. Here's what we took away from the session.

Why aren't we moving faster?

The speakers were united on one point: the biggest barrier to decarbonisation in the F&D sector isn't a lack of ambition. Companies have targets. Boards are engaged. The language of net zero is everywhere. The problem is execution.

Scope 3 emissions — those produced across a company's wider supply chain, rather than its own operations — represent the vast majority of most F&D businesses' carbon footprints. They're generated by thousands of suppliers across dozens of geographies, at every stage from farming and processing to packaging and logistics. Measuring them, let alone reducing them, is an enormous undertaking.

Add to that the internal complexity: sustainability teams too often work in isolation, disconnected from the procurement, R&D and IT functions they need to make progress. And many suppliers — particularly smaller ones — simply don't have the capacity or expertise to provide robust carbon data.

Getting 80% of the picture is enough to start. The pursuit of perfect data has become a reason not to act — and that's a problem we can't afford."

Why aren't we moving faster?

 


 


 


 


 


 


 

How the food and drink industry can move from ambition to action on Scope 3 — without waiting for perfect data.

On Tuesday 24th March, Sustainable Foods hosted 'Strategies & Solutions to Decarbonise the F&D Supply Chain', in partnership with Carbon Maps. Speakers included:

  • Nick Brown, ESG Director, Premier Foods
  • Ian Noble, Vice President, R&D, Mondelēz International
  • Patrick Asdaghi, CEO, Carbon Maps
  • Zoe Le Grand, Managing Director, Forum for the Future

Watch the full recording →

 

Key Takeaways

  • Embrace "Good Enough" Data to Start: The pursuit of perfect data should not delay decarbonisation action. Getting 80% of the picture is sufficient to begin prioritising and engaging suppliers on emissions reductions.
  • Break Down Internal Silos Early: Decarbonising scope 3 emissions fails without cross-functional collaboration. Sustainability teams must work with procurement, R&D and IT, at the very beginning of their journey to ensure emissions insights can be integrated intro standard business workflows.
  • Shift from Pilot Schemes to Systemic Change: Decarbonisation strategies must shift from working within one's own supply chain towards industry-wide adoption..
  • Resilience is the Stronger Business Case for Decarbonisation: The language of "carbon reduction" often struggles to gain internal traction, whereas "resilience" resonates more strongly, particularly in today's climate.
  • Technology Enables Decarbonisation at Scale: The complexity of the F&D supply chain requires tech solutions to support carbon reduction strategies.
  • Incentivise Don't Punish Suppliers: More "carrot" and less "big stick" against suppliers who lack carbon accounting practices. Effective decarbonisation is driven by collaboration and financial incentives.
  • Systemic Transition Requires Revaluing Food: Decarbonisation ultimately requires a cultural shift where society values food properly, accounting for the true environmental cost of food production.