“Sustainability requirements are seen by many as an obligation and a challenge, but we see them as an opportunity for progress. Accordingly, we are supporting the sustainable development of the domestic agriculture and food industry as an expert advisor and innovative guide by launching the K&H agri CO2 calculator. The calculator, which supports the awareness and sustainable management of businesses, can determine the carbon footprint of individual farms in the main crop and livestock sectors on the basis of calculations that meet scientific criteria.”

Libot Guy, CEO

Company name:

K&H Group

Implementation Year:

2023

Focus areas:

Reduction of air pollution, Sustainable supply chain, Climate protection and adaptation, Biodiversity

Program Objective:

Climate change, the demands of the Common Agricultural Policy and tougher consumer expectations are also pushing agriculture towards more environmentally friendly solutions. In the West, the affluent consumer class is now taking sustainability into account and is also looking at the carbon footprint of food.
In Hungary, affordability is still the most important consumer expectation for food, but consumer awareness of environmental sustainability is on the rise. Consumers are starting to pay attention to ethical and environmentally friendly production methods, they are prioritising locally produced food and we are seeing more and more initiatives to reduce food waste.
These trends are affecting the entire food industry, right down to the raw material producer. It is therefore important that all points in the supply chain are alert to these changes and are able to adapt their operations and product offerings accordingly.

One of the foundations for sustainable agriculture is GHG reduction. We are committed to reducing the GHG intensity of our agricultural funding by 21 percent by 2030 and 34 percent by 2050, but to do this we need to know the emissions of the farm. In order to reduce the carbon footprint of an economy, the first step is to know the exact numbers. In our experience, this data-based approach is still lacking in domestic practice, which is why we have created the free K&H agricultural CO2 calculator to provide agricultural companies with a good starting point for quantification and better understanding. The calculator was first launched in October 2023 for use by crop producers, and was extended in December 2023 to allow livestock producers to use it too.

Program Measures and Commitments:

In the coming years, the number of companies that will be required by the EU to report on their sustainability practices will increase significantly, with SMEs with more than 250 employees being covered from 2026, i.e. for the financial year 2025. We see that, for the time being, the lack of sustainability expertise and culture is a major challenge. Many of our clients are not ready to provide sustainability data (e.g. CO2 emissions), so our aim is to help them with this through the calculator. The calculator looks specifically at GHGs of agricultural origin (CO2, CH4, N2O), for direct (Scope1) and indirect (Scope2) emissions.

Beyond sustainability reporting, it is important for us to strengthen the sustainable profitability and crisis resilience of our clients. The calculator can also help them in this respect, as by filling it in they can keep track of how much energy (petrol, diesel, gas, etc.) and input materials (e.g. fertiliser, organic fertiliser, etc.) they have used in their production and whether they can reduce the quantities used by using them more intelligently and precisely.

This not only helps them to reduce their negative impact on the environment, but also to achieve significant cost reductions, which greatly helps to boost their profitability. It can also be of significant economic benefit to our agricultural commodity producer customers if they can demonstrate to their larger customers (retail chains, major food companies) that they are taking conscious steps and actions towards sustainability and are seeking to reduce their carbon footprint. Completing the calculator is also an excellent proof of this, as any further sustainability action can be based on this actual data. And after sustainability investments and actions have been made, you can check again how much your GHG emissions have decreased compared to the baseline, and quantify the reduction in CO2 emissions.

In addition to innovative financial solutions, we are promoting business sustainability with new, modern, easy and quick-to-use tools, such as the calculator. The development will help K&H to strengthen its relationship with agri-food companies and our partners to operate more stably and efficiently, increasing their competitiveness. There is a growing openness to use the calculator on the part of companies. On the one hand, this is because it gives companies the opportunity to present their sustainability results to their customers and partners. On the other hand, they plan to use the calculator’s results as an important element of their own sustainability reporting. Thirdly, there are customers who want to use the calculator to increase their company’s value and reputation.

Program Impact and Results:

So far, more than 40 companies have filled in the calculator. The results already show that the average national gross emissions in the crop sector are close to 2,000 tonnes of CO2, while in the pig sector they are 3,600 tonnes of CO2 and in the cattle sector they are over 9,200 tonnes of CO2 – confirming international estimates that there are significant differences in emissions between sectors at the domestic level. Perhaps even more illustrative of the differences are the gross specific emissions, which are 1.87 tonnes CO2/ha for crop production, 0.76 kg CO2/kg milk for dairy production, 1.66 kg CO2/kg live weight for pig production and 5.15 kg CO2/kg live weight for the cattle sector. These results also provide an opportunity to compare domestic emissions with international data. These show that while the average emissions of the domestic agricultural sector are 547 tonnes of CO2 per million EUR assets, the international figures are 1,528 tonnes of CO2 per million EUR assets, i.e. domestic emissions are only about a third of the Western average.

Related Links (in Hungarian):

K&H Agrár CO2 Kalkulátor

Keywords:

calculator, CO2 emission, agriculture