THE CONSULTANTS VIEW
James Anwyl is an energy consultant and building contractor who has worked in the sustainability arena for 10 years. He is an apprentice with the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers under Past Master Will Sibley, and along with Peter Thompson, got together two years ago “to talk about all things eco”.
Anwyl worked with Amjad Karim back in 2001, a management consultant with a science background, and they shared a strong interest in technical ways to address climate change and environmental issues. “We had been talking for years about doing something together in this area,” says Anwyl. “The reason we eventually came together was that as a team we have wide expertise in sustainability business consulting experience.” Anwyl and Karim have formed 383ppm, a sustainability and carbon consultancy.
“Will introduced us to Blackmoor Orchards, which grows premium apples for Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s, amongst others.” Karim adds: “Blackmoor asked us to work out its carbon footprint; we said we’ll do that, but we’ll also come up with some recommendations on how to improve the business and deliver some solutions.
“What we aimed to do from the start is combine all of the skills we have between us, to not just look at companies’ carbon footprints, but at ways to reduce emissions, while at the same time reducing costs and increasing profitability.” Blackmoor has more than 85 years of growing experience in Liss, Hampshire, and was looking for sustainable ways to reduce the environmental impact of its working practices.
The work undertaken to date illustrates the multi-faceted nature of the team. 383ppm has established a detailed carbon footprint of Blackmoor’s apples, which has thrown up some interesting carbon hotspots. As a result, the consultancy has planned a low-carbon production system for an experimental two hectares of new orchard, and produced an energy strategy, and buildings improvement programme for the farm.
“In the current debate around footprinting standards, it can be easy to forget that the most important thing is to move to more sustainable business models, decide on one or a number of carbon reduction measures, commit to a plan of continuous improvement and see how your business improves year on year,” says Karim.
“Blackmoor knew that carbon was a big issue obviously, but to actually commit to doing something about it still requires foresight,” says Anwyl. They are innovative growers, using trellis structures and dwarf rootstocks, and have always taken new ideas on board.
“But to talk to us, the consultants, was a brave step. We knew nothing about apples but, in many ways, our ignorance was exactly what was needed. We could suggest radical changes without the limitation of knowing the processes, and then we could run things past Will, Pete and the guys at Blackmoor,” he says.
“We did the footprint work and came up with a design and concepts for the orchards,” says Karim. “The work threw up some very interesting results, particularly around the trellis-based system Blackmoor uses. There were obvious benefits in terms of higher yields, which you would expect with densely planted 3,800 trees a hectare, compared to the traditional 800 trees a hectare. And production was more efficient, because the same applications and field activity were producing higher yields, and therefore costs were reduced.
“The data we gathered was on Cox and Gala, both in traditional orchards and in the trellis-based system. What we found is that in the first five years after planting, the Cox orchard using the trellis system produced 47 per cent lower CO2 emissions than traditional orchard. That would be expected in a young orchard, but we believe the ongoing benefit will be a 40 per cent saving per annum using this system in future years.”
The analysis of Blackmoor’s practices looked beyond the orchard, and unearthed a number of interesting inefficiencies in the packhouse, often things that would never have been considered as significant, adds Anwyl. “Until we had analysed the electricity usage, for instance, nobody had thought about the inefficiency of the chilled dispatch area, he explains. “But in holding apples for just six hours, it was emitting around a third of the carbon emitted in six months in a bin. Blackmoor were surprised by the small parts of the process where inefficiencies were to be found, and by the considerable impact these could have on the carbon footprint.”
The 383ppm concepts are applicable to all areas of horticulture and agriculture, and Karim says it is important to move away from the debate about which carbon calculator to use, and focus on the opportunities we have to improve business.
“Euan [Murray] at the Carbon Trust has been really helpful with friendly advice along the way, and the work they are doing is excellent,” says Anwyl, “They are trying to establish a British standard for carbon footprinting with the PAS2050, and we adapted their methodology to fit the needs of top fruit. We are not trying to create another audit system - every product and every farm is completely different.
“With Blackmoor, contractually we were obliged to focus on carbon emissions, but water use, nitrous oxide emissions and embodied energy are just some parts of the puzzle we also look at in terms of sustainability within a life cycle,” Anwyl says. “In the construction industry, both BREEAM and LEED offer a systematic method for gauging how sustainable the design of a building is. What we are doing in the agricultural sector is building a set of categories that can bolt on to other quality, opt-in farm practices, such as LEAF.”
Karim adds: “We didn’t want to get so caught up in the methodology and standards that we didn’t achieve anything; there are commercially viable technologies out there that can help us and businesses need to be taking advantage of them now.
“We have a concept for reducing the carbon footprint of a Blackmoor apple by 87 per cent. This is a massive theoretical reduction and involves some experimental development, but by and large, a carbon reduction programme based on this will deliver big savings annually and reduce dependency on petrochemical product and grid electricity,” he says.
“We are at an amazing time right now, many ‘green technologies’ are coming onto the market which are commercially viable that don’t force you to make compromises. In fact, it’s clear now that these technologies have more benefits, both financial and operational, than many conventional technologies.”
And Anwyl concludes: “Plans and projects are always important, but the average person really starts to get interested when you start implementing things. Measuring the carbon footprint is just the start; the eventual objective has to be to create sustainable and profitable businesses, without at any stage compromising the quality of the products.”
THE GROWER’S VIEW
383ppm completed
a full life cycle assessment of the CO2 emissions associated with apple production at Blackmoor, designed a low-carbon concept orchard and prepared an integrated farm energy strategy that exploits the availability of renewable energy sources on the estate.
By spending time on the farm, with farm manager Peter Barwick and packhouse manager Andy Stocker, the production process, with all the associated inputs, was observed closely, enabling a detailed process map to be drawn up and for primary data to be collected. This helped to establish a clear boundary for measuring the footprint up to the ‘farm gate,’ and provided the data to allow the analysis to be completed.
Direct and indirect carbon emissions due to fuel and agrichemical usage were modelled using data supplied by Blackmoor, and employing a methodology based upon that proposed by the Carbon Trust for manufactured goods and tailored for the agricultural industry by 383ppm.
Nitrous oxide emissions, water and other potential greenhouse gases were considered in solution development, despite it not being possible to accurately model the extent of these emissions due to differences of opinion in the scientific community.
William Woolmer, managing director of Blackmoor, tells FPJ he expects the company to benefit in a number of ways from the work. “We have the belief, shared by 383ppm, that reducing our carbon impact is not only good for the environment, but if done creatively and intelligently, can improve our bottom line,” he says. “This is borne out by the analysis, which has identified areas where we can reduce our energy bills and operational costs by modifying some of our existing business practices, and in the future we have the opportunity to produce all of our energy by taking advantage of some of the renewable energy sources available on the estate.
“It helps to differentiate ourselves from other growers, and by doing this now, we hope that we’re now slightly ahead of the curve and are prepared for the changing demands from government agencies, supermarkets and consumers as we collectively face the challenge of climate change,” Woolmer adds. “We have always had a strong commitment to our local environment, so naturally we feel it’s important to know the carbon footprint of our operations and to reduce it.”
Woolmer says that he and his management team were growing frustrated by the constant debate about agriculture and its greenhouse gas (GHG) impact, which was based on unreliable data. “I think we’ve moved the debate on a little by identifying areas where as an industry we need to gain a better understanding of the impact of some parts of the process, for example the GHG impact of the agrichemicals applied during the year,” he says.
There were several things that the work has uncovered which were quite unexpected, Woolmer admits, and he picks out three for special mention:
• “The amount of embedded carbon in the agrichemicals and their overall contribution to the footprint;
• “How some parts of the process are large users of energy, even though they form only a small part of the process. The removal of field heat from harvested apples or the holding of apples for despatch and how the energy used by these processes can be reduced by minor modifications to them;
• “Recently, we’ve been converting our traditional orchards to a more productive trellis-based system, giving increased yields per hectare. We have learnt these orchards have a reduced carbon footprint, as well as reduced production costs, which seems to be a recurring theme throughout this. Quite often reducing your carbon footprint does lead to a reduction in operational costs.”
On working with 383ppm, he concludes: “It’s always helpful for an outsider to review something that you do day to day and to look for ways to improve it. Quite often, familiarity with your work makes that a difficult thing to do. 383ppm brought a fresh, and refreshing, new perspective.”
383 GOOD REASONS FOR NAME
Atmospheric CO2 concentrations have been measured at Mauna Loa in Hawaii since 1958. During this time, they have risen from 316 parts per million (ppm) in 1958 to 383ppm (382.94) in 2007.
The unusual name ‘383’ represents the concentration in the year the company was established. “Our goal is to play our part in stabilising the level, and then helping to reduce it. It’s not about everyone walking around in hemp, but recognising that technology has got us here, and it’s technology that can get us out again” says Amjad Karim.
“We are a consultancy. The first thing any company must believe when they use us is that it’s an investment, and not a cost. They should be looking to improve their bottom line”
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