Agri-food sector actively addressing climate action

Russell Smyth is a partner at KPMG, where he heads up the dedicated ESG and sustainable advisory practice, advising corporate and public institutions. It is the largest such advisory practice in Ireland and while they advise across many sectors, one of the most active is agri-food.

“The agri-food sector is really at the cutting edge of this agenda addressing the government’s climate action plans for decarbonisation, food security and sustainability,” says Smyth. “The agri-food sector is really active here. They know it will take time and they are already working on their strategies before the regulation comes in.”

KPMG works with clients to develop this core strategy. The first step is to help a corporation understand what ESG means to them, to look at upcoming regulations and also to look at what their customer base is going to demand of them.

“It’ll be a five-to-ten year journey and the first thing is to put the roadmap into place,” says Smyth. “Then, the biggest element is decarbonisation, which is effectively about removing emissions, removing carbon or removing methane in agriculture.

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“We help organisations to measure their current carbon footprint before we establish what technologies can be put in place to reduce that figure – and whether they just require reductions or indeed want to hit net zero.”

Currently there are not many regulations forcing agri-food businesses to reduce their carbon footprint but the sector is looking to get ahead of the agenda, through voluntary actions.

The Carbery Group in Cork is a good example of an organisation putting sustainability at the forefront of its work. It is working on a project called Carbon Zero that is looking to create the first net-zero dairy farm.

As a processor it can measure its own emissions but potentially 90 per cent of these come from the farming operations chain.

“It’s not just about decarbonising your own operations but those of your supply chain,” says Smyth.

There is a list of between 20 and 30 individual initiatives that can aid decarbonisation, including changing the diets of dairy herds to seaweed, using on-farm anaerobic digestion to remove methane emissions, and employing more carbon neutral equipment to spread slurry.

However, a recent paper prepared by KPMG shows that even if all the known current technologies are implemented, organisations will struggle to get past 20 per cent decarbonisation - which leaves a big gap.

“It’s also an opportunity and there are huge amounts of research underway,” continues Smyth. “In this regard the work and research being undertaken by the Carbery Group is invaluable.”

At the same time, other research is being conducted on crops to create the same yield but using less fertiliser and less water. Devenish, based in Northern Ireland, is another agri-food company that is pioneering sustainable food solutions through innovative research and development in response to consumer demand for safe, nutritious and sustainably produced food.

“This sector is very vibrant and looking for solutions that will let them become net zero or close to it over the coming years,” says Smyth.