BSI measure food’s carbon footprint

Plans are being made to develop a standard measurement for the carbon footprint of goods produced in the UK, to allow consumers to make more informed choices about the products that they buy, and to encourage companies to see how they can cut back on carbon emissions.

Defra and the Carbon Trust are working on the plans together with the British Standards Institute (BSI). Their hope is to draw up a consistent method of measuring greenhouse gas emissions associated with products. The measure would then be published as a Publicly Available Standard (PAS).

ASAS, environmental consultants, have been selected to perform a dry run of the measuring system, and to look at how the emissions of food production could be measured.

The results will allow the food industry to assess the environmental costs of different food supply chains and different products. It will also allow for a comparison of how green organic and home grown products are compared to conventional farming.

Additionally, they will identify the hotspots for carbon emissions, giving focus to carbon reduction strategies.

ASAS senior consultant Jeremy Wiltshire, said: “We are very excited about this project - once a PAS is established, it may be applied across a wide range of product categories.

“It’s essential that every component is accounted for, from the fuels burned by the tractor, to gases emitted in soil processes and during storage of commodities.”