Better Food Traders has been investigating the emission footprint of localised, organic and circular food businesses. We explored how food SMEs can calculate their carbon footprint, and the associated challenges and knowledge gaps.Â
Measuring carbon emissions is only one dimension of sustainability, but widely-recognised and likely to become an increasingly important aspect of evaluating and communicating sustainable practice.
However, the accuracy of carbon calculations can vary enormously. There are also big gaps and assumptions being used by the carbon-footprinting industry, as well as cost and time barriers.
We want to support food SMEs to develop their awareness, knowledge and skills in this area – especially enterprises that are considering selling into the public sector. This research is a first step in addressing the issues for SMEs that hope to measure their emissions.