21 Mar 2019 --- Plant-based food and drink producer Alpro and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) have undertaken a pioneering study developing ways for companies to boost sustainability within their supply chains. The project applies science-based targets for Alpro’s almond and soy drink supply chains that go beyond carbon emissions to develop targets for water, land use, soil nutrients, and biodiversity. The findings give insight on how other companies can reduce their specific environmental footprints based on the earth’s actual capacity, rather than general sustainability principles.

“It’s widely recognized that plant-based food is part of the solution towards a healthy and sustainable diet for everyone. But how could we make sure our own products are not exceeding the planet’s capacity in terms of impacts such as water, land use, biodiversity?” Alpro Senior Sustainable Development Manager Greet Vanderheyden, tells FoodIngredientsFirst. “We needed a new way of thinking that went beyond measuring impact and reduction targets based on efficiency or feasibility. We wanted targets that are safe and fair for the planet,” she adds. 

The approach of this study – “Setting Science based Targets for Nature” – goes beyond simply aiming to minimize the impact of climate change on food and beverage supply chains. A prosperous and healthy future can be a reality even on a destabilized planet affected by the rapid onset of climate change, according to key representatives involved in the research.

But it is crucial for companies to “budget” for other environmental impacts in the same detail as many already do for carbon emissions, the report stresses. 

A consortium of research institutes coordinated by Dutch sustainability experts metabolic worked with WWF NL and Alpro on the project which provides recommendations on how Alpro can keep within the safe environmental limits set by the Planetary Boundaries framework (a concept presenting a set of planetary boundaries within which humanity can continue to develop and thrive for generations to come). 

“The food and beverage sector is impactful when it comes to the planetary boundaries of climate change, biodiversity loss, nutrient loss, land use change and water use,”WWF project leader Jorien van Hoogen tells FoodIngredientsFirst. “By gaining a deeper understanding of their impacts, companies can better understand how to reduce them. There is no sector that is more reliant on healthy, productive ecosystems than the food and beverage industry, so we see those with an interest in a longer-term sustainable business to also be interested in sustainable environments,” he adds. 

“It’s Alpro’s ambition to offer ‘One Planet’ products to consumers over the long term, products that are produced within the capacity of our planet. An important objective of the project team is scaling up this approach beyond the pilot scale, to map and assess bigger parts of our supply chain,” says Vanderheyden. 

“To start tackling the impacts, we want kick-off projects on the ground, in almond and soy cultivation, and start implementing this new way of thinking in collaboration with farmers and cooperatives. We are also keen on supporting the scientific work necessary to improve the allocation (or ‘budget’) challenges that lie ahead,” she adds. 

Sustainability consultant Brian Shaw of metabolic says that establishing assessment methodologies – with as robust a scientific approach as possible – is relevant to the sustainability efforts of all industries.

However, it is particularly significant to the food industry as food and beverage companies have a crucial responsibility in understanding and reducing their contribution to the damaging environmental impacts that their products could have. 

Some of the most significant boundaries that need to be evaluated for companies that are dependent on agricultural raw materials, such as Alpro, are those directly impacted by agricultural production: land-use, freshwater use, nitrogen cycle disruption (e.g., through fertilizer application) and biodiversity loss.

“By taking science-based targets beyond carbon emissions, food and beverage companies can start assessing their impacts on biodiversity, land use, water, and soil nutrients the same way many are already doing with climate change,” says Shaw. 

once targets are set for reducing impacts, the next step is to hit those targets. “Supply chain hotspot analysis such as what was undertaken with Alpro will show a company wher the most impactful interventions can be, and they can then make change in their business practices to reduce these impacts. We are used to thinking in terms of resource availability, but now we are starting to think in terms of impact allocation,” he notes.

The Alpro pilot comes a few months after an InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) report called for a total transformation of how systems operate as agriculture and consumer choices are major factors driving “disastrous climate change.” Branding the world’s food systems “broken,” some of the world’s leading science academies believe global food systems are failing and urgently need to be turned around.

The notion of how big business within the global food industry and agri-food chain will contribute to the fight against climate change continues to be a keenly debated issue.  

In October 2018, a leading body of experts, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), issued a stark warning regarding the urgent need to limit global warming to 1.5°C which requires “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.” 

Almonds and biodiversity 
Plant-based dairy alternatives are thriving in European markets, amid a surge in demand for vegetarian and vegan options. Soy remains a key ingredient while other plant-based options such as almonds are also proliferating. Hazelnuts, cashew, rice, oats and coconut are also key ingredients for Alpro’s product range. 

This project sought to develop methodologies for measuring a company’s footprint and also provided recommendations based on Alpro’s particular circumstances. In terms of biodiversity, Alpro’s almonds come from farms located in Mediterranean forests, woodland and scrub which are under threat. 

They are below the critical tipping point of 10 percent vegetation cover (according to the Natural Intact Vegetation index). However, the specific areas in which the assessed farms are situated have relatively high vegetation cover of 73.8 percent. This means one high-impact way in which Alpro could benefit the environment is by introducing measures on its farms to create “corridors of biodiversity” to increase connectivity with surrounding natural habitats, notes the study.

Water ecosystems 
The Alpro pilot also focused on the specific context of the water ecosystems the company draws on. After assessing the freshwater balance of a selected basin, the study indicated the river system already comes under significant strain during the summer months between May and September. Climate change threatens to exacerbate the situation if it alters rainfall patterns. Alpro says these types of insights will help to create science-based targets for water for its farms. 

Trade-offs and data gaps 
The collective found that performance in one area is linked to impacts on other boundaries. For example, Alpro’s organic farms performed better than its conventional farms on water efficiency, soil nutrient loss and carbon emissions. However, the organic farms produced less yield per hectare of land used, so the report explored what trade-offs they could make to increase this, such as increasing irrigation or alternative forms of fertilizer use on organic farms that are safely within the limits for water or soil nutrient impact.

By Gaynor Selby