🌱 Avoided Emissions? Get to know 'Scope 4' and Zero Acre Farms' Cultured Oil

Featuring Dizzie, Joules, Zero Acre Farms, GANNI and more...

Sep 26, 2022

Happy Monday!

This week we cover:

Ever heard of ‘Scope 4’ emissions? Let us introduce you…
Aiming for Healthier Planet: Meet Zero Acre Farms’ Cultured Oil
In case you missed it: 🤝#3 - Meet the Partners: Zevero, featuring George Wade, Co-Founder and COO

> Good News Last Week

🎯 Dizzie created their new, 98% renewable (40% wood, 60% used cooking oil), stackable, multi-use, durable food packaging - a first for the food industry.

⭐ Joules has announced the launch of its resale platform, the newest phase of its partnership with Reskinned as part of its ‘Joules ReWear’ programme.

⭐ Fashion brand GANNI A/S has reached B Corp certification with a score of 90.6, and has already set out its aim to reach 150 points by 2025.

⭐ Following in the footprints of Patagonia, founder of sportswear Brand lululemon announces a donation of C$100 million for nature preservation. The money will support the development and preservation of British Columbia’s natural region via the B.C. Parks 25x25 program.

⭐ ADM and PepsiCo have announced a 7.5 year commercial agreement to collaborate and promote regenerative agriculture across their shared North American Supply Chains. The partnership plans to reach up to 2 million acres by 2030.

⭐ Arla Foods and Eurowind Energy have entered into a ten-year power purchase agreement (PPA). This will help ensure Arla reaches its target of 100% green electricity in Denmark by 2025.

⚡Treeconomy launched Sherwood, an online marketplace platform where you can purchase carbon credits, and see, in live time, where and what you’re investing in.

⚡ Fashion brands and farmers in California, including COYUCHI, MATE the Label, Reformation and Carhartt, have teamed up to create the California Cotton & Climate Coalition (C4) agreement. This aims to help brands source cotton directly from farmers who have transitioned to “climate beneficial practices” and regenerative agriculture.

> Click on each link to read more.

> Quick Take

Ever heard of ‘Scope 4’ emissions? Let us introduce you…

More than 9 out of 10 Fortune 500 companies reporting to CDP use the GHG Protocol. The Protocol enables companies to measure, manage and report greenhouse gas emissions from their operations and value chains. These emissions fall into three categories:

Scope 1: direct emissions from a company’s owned or controlled sources.
Scope 2: indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy.
Scope 3: all other indirect emissions that occur, including those of a company’s suppliers (upstream) and customers (downstream). Did you know that approximately 90% of FMCG emissions are Scope 3?

Scope 1, 2, 3…and now 4?

Recently, there has also been a growing interest in a new category: Scope 4, or ‘Avoided Emissions”. ‘Avoided Emissions” is proposed to categorise the emissions (you guessed it) that are avoided through investment into, or development of, new and more sustainable products - the production process of which may temporarily increase emissions through necessary R&D - but the use of which could reduce emissions in the long term due via consumer use (as they’re more emission efficient products). Let’s look at a tangible example with CDSB’s toaster analogy:

A manufacturer that sells toasters can reduce the average CO2 per slice of toast, by improving (for example) the product design of the toaster.
However, the increase in total scope 3 emissions as a result of increasing sales or appetite is beyond its control. Therefore, its total scope 3 emissions from use of this toaster might increase, as a result of increased demand.
This is where the value of Scope 4 emissions comes in, allowing the company to track the progress in avoiding emissions, as higher emissions from making toast would have otherwise occurred if they had not improved efficiency in product design and manufacturing. Scope 4 essentially looks at the emissions that a product would have had, had they not reduced emissions via improved efficiency, and aims to quantify this.

As Eco-Business writes, “current positive narratives surrounding how a company can augment brand value by demonstrating accountability through emissions reporting have fuelled the corporate appetite for going beyond the current protocol of reporting on Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions”. So, this must be taken with a pinch of salt. It’s worth noting, however, that Scope 4 is not proposed as a way to deduct from or ‘offset’ Scope 1-3 emissions combined.

Unlike Scope 1-3 reporting, which follows clear and well-established standards under the GHG protocol and the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), there are no official or agreed standards for the measurement and reporting of Scope 4 emissions. Consequently, there are significant concerns over the lack of a prescriptive methodology and related potential use of the metric for greenwashing. Others have also gestured to the fact that many businesses are not equipped to measure Scope 1-3, raising questions over whether we are ready to add even more complexity via Scope 4.

Scope 4 is clearly not a perfect solution, but it is important to consider its merits in incentivising companies to create new products with emissions reductions in mind.

Things to consider as the discussion unfolds:

How can we avoid greenwashing with Scope 4?
Are businesses ready for this?
How will this help consumer decision-making?
How can Scope 4 data be leveraged to promote investment into climate-focused R&D?

Let us know: What does your business think of the discussion and the potential merits and risks of Scope 4?

Interested? Read on…

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Aiming for Healthier Planet: Meet Zero Acre Farms’ Cultured Oil

Keen to reduce our consumption of vegetable (seed) oils, which have been linked to health and environmental issues, Zero Acre Farms is a US-based brand pioneering the manufacturing of ‘Cultured Oil’. With a high-smoke point, neutral taste and containing monounsaturated fat - they believe it can be used for ‘absolutely everything’.

What’s the science behind it?

Zero Acre Farms’ Cultured Oil is made via fermentation. So, the process starts with an oil culture, which is a group of microorganisms that can convert feedstock goods like wheat and barley into new food products. Cultured Oil is a result of fermentation converting natural sugars found in non-GMO, perennial sugarcane into (you guessed it) oils and fats. The culture is then pressed, to release the oil, and this oil is then filtered and separated - and bottled to be sold. Want to learn more? Watch this video.

If it sounds strange - it might sound even more strange to know that an estimated 1/3rd of all food we eat is fermented - from bread and beer, to cheese and chocolate.

Environmentally better, or worse?

The answer is better, that’s because Cultured Oil:

Uses 85% less land than canola oil.
Emits 86% less CO2 than soybean oil.
Requires 99% less water than olive oil.
Has 10x smaller environmental footprint than vegetable oil.
Is deforestation free

*Cultured oil vs vegetable oil. *per kg crude oil compared to soybean oil, based on third party LCA, in accordance with ISO 1404/44 standards. Source: zeroacre.com*

In particular, the process of fermentation avoids the risk of deforestation to produce the feed grain for the oil. With the negative impacts of other oils, like Palm Oil, on rainforests and habitats worldwide becoming more and more well known (and part of public conscience), Zero Acre Farms’ fermentation process could be truly revolutionary.

*Best cooking oils for conserving land use and biodiversity. Source: zeroacre.com*

Zero Acre’s big vision

Zero Acre Farms are starting by selling direct to consumers, with a long term view to sell into businesses like restaurant chains too. Their recently released all-purpose Cultured Oil bottles are sold in 1,2 and 4 packs, with subscription options available too.

Consumers can even scan a QR code on the back of their bottles to learn more about the batch of Cultured Oil their bottle is from, as each is slightly different - with detailed fatty acid and antioxidant composition available to view, a level of traceability not seen with other oil groups.

The end goal? Let’s hear it from them…

If just 5% of vegetable oil in the United States were replaced with Cultured Oil, we would save 3.1 million acres of land, 3.6 million metric tons of CO2-eq, and 56.9 billion gallons of water every year, not to mention countless lives.

As an impact goal, that sounds pretty good to us!

Interested? Learn more…

Listen: MCJ Startup Series: Zero Acre Farms
Read: Zero Acre Farms’ Sustainability Report

Support Zero Acre Farms via their shop:

Shop Zero Acre Farms

> In case you missed it

🤝#3 - Meet the Partners: Zevero