Measuring Carbon Impact - Food Hubs

Description

Sustainable Food Procurement for Local Prosperity MEASURING AND DEMONSTRATING THE POTENTIAL CARBON BENEFITS OF USING LOCAL FOOD HUBS TO SUPPLY PUBLIC SECTOR SETTINGS PROJECT INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND Working in partnership, Social Farms & Gardens, Open Food Network, Cultivate, Development Trusts Association Wales and Foothold Cymru, aim to demonstrate that the public sector CAN procure efficiently from local producers using methods that benefit the natural environment and local prosperity. Collaborating with Sustainable Food Places Officers in North Powys and Carmarthenshire, two Procurement Hubs are purchasing from local, small-scale growers, aggregating supply and providing produce to the public sector that meets (or exceeds) requirements in terms of ease, cost and sustainability. DEMONSTRATING BENEFIT The project aims to: • Provide data that demonstrates the wider impact to local authorities and other public sector bodies of purchasing from local growers. • Provide data that demonstrates the wider impact to local authorities and other public sector bodies of purchasing from growers using agroecological methods. • Provide data that demonstrates the wider value to local authorities and other public sector bodies of using a local food hub model. We have commissioned two consultants to capture data around: - Nutrient density of local produce (grown agroecologically). - Sustainability impact of local, community-based procurement food hubs assessed within the WFGA framework. The final piece of data we want to capture is around carbon impact of the model. Additionally, we have commissioned BRO Partnership to evaluate the project and the evidence provided by our carbon impact contractor will be included in the final evaluation report. BRIEF OUTLINE Due to the small sample size of this pilot project and the short timeframes within which we are working, we are not anticipating collecting robust data that can be used to prove wide impact of this model. However, all our data collection activity is aimed at increasing the awareness and knowledge of growers, public sector customers and the hub itself to identify improvements to practice and simple monitoring techniques to capture data ongoing. All data will be integrated into the Open Food Network (OFN) platform so that public sector customers can see the added value of products they are purchasing. All data that we capture should be used to demonstrate how this model can help public sector bodies in Carmarthenshire and North Powys to meet their stated aims around carbon, biodiversity, health and local economy. Our long-term strategy is to use the learning from this pilot to develop the model including technological advancements, upscaling growers/producers and empowering local procurement champions within the public sector. The contractor will be required to: • Work with growers involved in the pilot in Carmarthenshire and North Powys. • Understand public sector (including local authorities, health boards, public services boards and Welsh Government) priorities in terms of meeting carbon targets. • Provide training to various parties involved in the pilot on how to measure carbon impact. • Support three growers in each region to measure their carbon impact. • Provide advice and guidance to growers about how to reduce their carbon impact. • Collate and translate data into useful format that can be o integrated into OFN platform, and o used by public sector bodies to demonstrate how this model could help meet their targets o integrated into the pilot project evaluation Additionally, the contractor may be able to: • Share techniques and expertise for measuring wider environmental impact such as biodiversity. • Share baseline data which can be used to demonstrate impact of alternative growing methods and working locally.