Your farming sector sustainability plan

Use this sustainability plan if you’re a small or medium-sized business in the farming sector and any of the following:

• owners
• managers
• employees

Contents

1. Understand your business emissions
2. Get finance and support
3. Actions you can take right now
4. Longer term actions
5. Indirect emissions
6. Share your progress

Understand your business emissions

1) What causes emissions in farming

Direct carbon emissions produced by farming include:

• chemical fertilisers – used on crops
• methane – released by livestock manure
• land use change – clearing natural habitats such as woodland
• soil-based emissions – caused by regular tilling and soil compaction
• energy use – for lighting and heating in farm buildings
• transport – using vehicles and tractors which run on petrol or diesel
• general waste – resulting from farming processes and product packaging

2) Calculate your emissions

There are a number of farm-specific tools to help measure emissions. These include:

• Cool Farm Alliance greenhouse gas calculator (free)
• Farm Carbon Calculator toolkit (free)

3) Estimate the cost of your emissions

Once you have your carbon footprint, you can calculate how much your emissions are costing you. This will give you an idea of potential savings you can make by taking action.

Get finance and support

1) Get help and advice from the following organisations:

• National Farmers’ Union (NFU)– provides net zero advice and networking opportunities. You have to pay annual membership
• Nature Friendly Farming Network (NFFN)– offers guidance on sustainable farming, as well as courses and events. Membership is free.
• The Soil Association– membership charity for sustainable food, farming and land use
• UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)– provides funding for developing innovative products, processes or services in the food industry.
• Country Land and Business Association (CLA)is a membership organisation for owners of land, property and businesses in rural England and Wales.
• Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB)delivers projects that increase productivity and boost farming and supply chain businesses.

You can also learn how to run your business in a more environmentally friendly way by hiring a sustainability consultant.

2) Get financial support:

Find out about finance and support across the UK.

Actions you can take right now

1) Save energy in your buildings

Quick, low-cost actions include:

• lighting – use LED bulbs for greater efficiency
• heating – put your thermostat on a timer and seal your windows for extra insulation
• office equipment – try to turn off and unplug devices when they’re not being used

2) Do an energy walk-round

Walk around your farm to see if energy is being used efficiently.

Prepare a checklist. Look out for wasteful energy use and maintenance issues in the following areas:

• lighting, heating and refrigeration systems
• ventilation
• water heating
• milk cooling
• water pumps

Improve ventilation

Routine maintenance checks and cleaning will improve the efficiency of your ventilation system.

3) Change your energy tariff

Switch to a green energy tariff with your energy supplier. This will reduce your reliance on energy produced by fossil fuels.

4) Switch to a smart meter

This will allow you to see and control how much energy you use.

Find out more about smart meters.

5) Manage your farming waste

Recycle waste to prevent it being taken to landfill sites where it takes longer to break down and causes more emissions.

6) Get training in energy efficiency

You can train your team to be aware of energy efficiency in the workplace.

Find a sustainability training course.

Longer term actions

1) Reduce livestock emissions

If you have livestock on your farm, you can cut methane emissions by :

• feeding cattle based on their nutrient needs
• focusing on herd health and breeding practices to improve production efficiency
• using manure storage covers, sealed tanks and additives to break down manure

Milk cooling

On a dairy farm, a Plate Heat Exchanger can reduce energy costs for cooling milk by up to 50%. Using water to pre-cool milk can reduce cooling costs by 30%.

Vacuum pumps

In a milking parlour, installing a variable speed drive on a vacuum pump can reduce pump running costs by 60%.

2) Reduce soil emissions in farming

To reduce soil-based emissions and improve soil quality, use cover crops. Avoid:

• regular tilling
• grazing and travelling on wet soil
• compacting the soil with heavy machinery

3) Install renewables

You might consider installing renewable sources of energy if you are the legal owner of your property.

For example:

• heat pumps for heating and water
• solar panels or a wind turbine for electricity

By doing so, you could make significant long-term savings on energy bills.

Check planning permission guidelines before you go ahead with any structural changes to the property.

4) Reduce transport emissions from farming

Over 25% of the UK’s carbon emissions are caused by transport.

Discover how to reduce emissions from freight and logistics.

If you have employees you could introduce a cycle-to-work initiative or encourage them to take public transport.

Discover more about switching employee modes of transport.

Electric vehicles

If you use a work vehicle, you can reduce emissions by switching over to an electric vehicle (EV). You would be exempt from congestion charges and parking fees in certain areas.

For easy overnight charging you could install EV chargers at your home or workplace.

Find out more about installing chargepoints.

5) Use sustainable product packaging

Replace plastic with recycled or compostable substitutes.

Types of sustainable packing include:

• plant-based packaging
• edible packaging – made from seaweed extract
• compostable and biodegradable plastic alternatives
• plantable packaging – which is made from seeds and can be buried in soil

Indirect emissions

To reduce indirect or ‘supply chain’ emissions you need to consider what happens before and after your business provides a service or makes a product.

1) Choose greener ‘upstream’ suppliers and products

• use suppliers that measure and reduce carbon
• help your suppliers with carbon reduction projects
• buy products that take less energy to make, transport and operate

Discover how to source products and services from green suppliers.

2) Reduce emissions ‘downstream’ of your business

• make products that take less energy to make, transport and operate
• reduce water consumption and waste disposal needs
• make investments in lower carbon financial products
• give incentives for lower emission activities in leased assets or franchises

3) Certify your supply chain action with PAS 2060

PAS 2060 has historically been used to demonstrate carbon neutrality. However, it is now being phased out and replaced by the international standard ISO 14068‑1: Carbon Neutrality.

ISO 14068‑1 builds on the principles of PAS 2060 and provides a more robust, globally recognised and evolving framework for making credible carbon neutrality claims.

The standard process for achieving carbon neutrality includes these steps:

• Assessment of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions using accurate and verifiable data
• Reduction of emissions through a clear, target-driven carbon management plan
• Transparent documentation, independent verification and public disclosure

Independent verification (for example through the British Standards Institution (BSI) or other accredited bodies) can help demonstrate that your business meets the requirements of recognised carbon neutrality standards.

Businesses should consider aligning with ISO 14068‑1 to meet current best practice and maintaining credibility as standards continue to evolve.

Share your progress

Tracking and sharing your progress will help employees and customers feel confident that you’re reducing carbon and moving towards net zero.

You should share your progress once you’ve done both of the following:

• worked out a benchmark of emissions
• started to take action