News

Let’s talk about climate!

14th June 2023

SAI Platform’s newest webinar series Climate Conversations is brought together by the Crops Working Group and represents a fundamental piece in the puzzle to build an industry-aligned approach for measurable GHGE mitigation and resilience in agriculture.

Climate Conversations invites leading external experts from Quantis, Oxford University, and the Soil Health Institute as well as seasoned Crop’s Working Group members to share their insights, key technical know-how, best practices, and major innovations in the field, to enable SAI Platform members to act more confidently and meaningfully progress on their climate-smart journey. 

Explaining the purpose behind what this effective way of bringing the Crops community together over such a critical common ground, Robyn Cooper commented: “The knowledge and insights from the speakers so far have helped to inspire and catalyse new ideas for the 130+ participants, which will ultimately shape the future of our work scaling climate smart and regenerative agriculture!”

After the most recent and well-received third instalment of the series, member Marc Racozky, Suntory commented: “SAI Platform’s Climate Conversation has given me valuable learning pointers, insight, and direction to our climate-smart and regenerative agriculture journey. From baselining to data integration and innovation, this is a great example of how SAI Platform enables the collaboration across industries and areas of expertise”.

What have we learnt from the Climate Conversation Series so far

Primary farm-level and secondary Life Cycle Assessment data represent fundamental tools in a climate-smart journey. Selecting one for a given purpose means considering the trade-off between obtaining granular, higher quality data, and time and resource constraints. 

For any business wishing to mitigate their emissions on key crops and geographies, ‘scientifically robust enough’ primary data is required to credibly account for and report upon improvements. It also serves to support more engaged and informed joint decision making with suppliers and farmers.

A variety of primary data collection tools are now available. Selecting the right one means keeping in mind main priorities, as well as the saying: All models are wrong, some are useful.

Trusting relationships through active engagement with farmers and suppliers are fundamental to the success of collecting strong primary data. This includes ensuring farmers get something back for their additional efforts and working with local implementation partners on the ground. 

Reporting carbon removals remains a key challenge for the sector. Soil organic carbon content and good soil health go hand in hand: ensuring both is best done through sound soil management practices, such as those of regenerative agriculture. Innovative solutions are emerging to measure soil carbon content, combining in-field, remote sensing, and expanding soil database technologies, but the challenge remains to align on the cost, practicality, and robustness of the solutions. 

The Climate Conversation series continues with the next webinar coming in July 2023. If you want to catch up on the conversation so far, the first three instalments can be accessed by members only at My SAI Platform.