Food & Agriculture Working Group
The Food & Agriculture sector accounts for approximately 25% of global CO₂ emissions. Despite ongoing efforts, its complexity demands further collaboration to drive effective solutions.
Launched in 2023, the Value Change Initiative’s Food & Agriculture Working Group aims to overcome barriers in Scope 3 decarbonisation. Join us in this vital effort and collaborate with leading companies to accelerating the sector’s transition to Net Zero.
Key Challenges
The sector faces significant pressure to reduce emissions while feeding a growing population. From 2020 to 2022, major food companies increased their GHG emissions by 7%. Key issues include:
- Unclear upcoming standards and regulations
- Ambiguity in transparent co-claiming and avoiding double counting in Scope 3
- Inconsistent guidance for Scope 3 categories, e.g., Category 11: Use of sold goods
- Lack of methodologies for interventions like land use change and crop rotation
Objective & Outcome
This year’s Working Group is the 5th edition and will build on previous finding and will enhance the Value Chain Guidance to tackle the intricate challenges of Scope 3 accounting.
The group’s primary objective is to co-develop actionable solutions for complex issues such as crop rotation, land use change, and other sustainable practices. By producing comprehensive guidance documents, the group aims to provide the entire sector with the tools and knowledge needed to transition towards Net Zero value chains. This collaborative effort will drive meaningful change, ensuring that food and agriculture companies can accurately measure, report, and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, ultimately fostering a more sustainable future for all.
Approach & Timeline
The Working Group includes five thematic sessions from November 2024 to September 2025, both online and in-person, covering:
- Concept introduction and capacity building
- Application, reporting
Participants will engage in expert presentations, discussions, and demonstrations, sharing strategies and challenges to develop shared solutions. The sessions will be co-designed with participants. Upon conclusion of these sessions, the group will publish comprehensive guidance documents to assist the sector in implementing effective Scope 3 decarbonisation strategies.
Kick Off
Presentation of Value Change documents, key concepts, questions, participant needs and objectives.
Capacity Building
Deep dive on the core Guidance concepts and their applicability to the sector. Co-defining gaps and in-depth topics based on identified needs.
Challenges
Sharing case studies to identify challenges and opportunities for guidance development.
Solutions
Implications for implementation pathways including topics such as third-party verification, tools, pilots and collective action.
Output
Feedback, clarifications or addendums from Working Groups are integrated to the Guidance.
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