Summary
Most of an agriculture company's emissions sit in its supply chain, on farms it does not own. To cut them, follow four steps set out by Olam's Julie Greene at COP27: find your Scope 3 hotspots, drill into the data by product, region and practice, act where you have reach, and report transparently to investors and customers.
Why is decarbonisation hard for agriculture companies?
Because most of their emissions are Scope 3. They happen on supplier farms and in land-use change, not in the company's own factories or vehicles. Agrifood systems produced about 16.5 Gt CO2e in 2023, roughly 32% of global emissions, according to FAO's 2025 FAOSTAT analysis. Half of that came from the farm gate.
The GHG Protocol splits a company's emissions into three scopes:
| Scope | What it covers | Example for an agriculture company |
| Scope 1 | Direct emissions from owned or controlled sources | Diesel in company trucks, fertiliser on company-owned estates, owned livestock |
| Scope 2 | Indirect emissions from purchased electricity, heat and cooling | Electricity for mills, dryers and cold stores |
| Scope 3 | All other indirect emissions across 15 value chain categories | Crops bought from farmers (Category 1), land-use change at suppliers, transport, processing of sold products |
For a trader or processor, Scope 3 is usually the large majority. When Olam first measured its footprint, Julie Greene said, it found that over 98% of it was Scope 3. See our guide to Scope 3 emissions.
What are the key steps to decarbonise an agriculture business?
At a COP27 panel in Sharm el-Sheikh in November 2022, Julie Greene, Chief Sustainability Officer at food and agri-business Olam, set out four steps:
- Identify emission hotspots
- Drill down and analyse the data
- Zero in on actionable opportunities
- Facilitate transparency
Credits: Singapore Pavilion at COP27
Step 1: How do you identify emission hotspots?
Measure your full footprint first, then find where most of it sits. A high-level screen across all Scope 3 categories shows which commodities, suppliers and activities matter most. For Olam, finding that Scope 3 was over 98% of its footprint "pointed us in a direction that we may not have been paying as much attention to," Greene said.
Step 2: How do you drill down into the data?
Break the footprint down by product, supply chain stage, geography and practice. Greene suggested four questions for any large agri-business:
- Which products create the most emissions?
- Which parts of the supply chain contribute the most?
- Where, geographically, do most emissions come from?
- Which practices cause the most emissions?
Within a product, the source matters: "Is it mainly coming from methane emissions, fertilizers, or tillage practices, and how does it vary across regions?"
Step 3: How do you find actionable opportunities?
Start where the technology already exists and where you have scale and reach. In some supply chains, Olam already ran farmer livelihood projects, which gave it an immediate entry point. In others, Greene said, the choice is whether to work with farmers directly or through banks and patient finance that lets farmers invest in their soils. "This will take a few years to pay back but it will pay back."
| Lever | Typical hotspot | Who you work with |
| Nutrient management | Nitrous oxide from fertiliser | Farmers, agronomists, input suppliers |
| Alternate wetting and drying | Methane from flooded rice | Rice farmers, irrigation schemes |
| Feed and manure changes | Methane from cattle and manure | Dairy and beef farms, feed suppliers |
| Deforestation-free sourcing | CO2 from land-use change | Traders, mills, certification bodies |
| Farmer finance | Upfront cost of new practices | Banks, offtakers, development finance |
Step 4: How do you build transparency?
Ask suppliers, customers and partners to share emissions data, and report it consistently. Greene named the growing number of reporting frameworks as one of the biggest challenges. Some suppliers lack the systems or willingness to measure, so a company needs a clear request, simple templates and a fallback method. See our tips on engaging suppliers on Scope 3.
Which standards apply to agricultural emissions?
Two now matter most. The GHG Protocol Land Sector and Removals (LSR) Standard sets how land emissions, land-use change and removals are reported. Version 1 was published on 30 January 2026 and takes effect on 1 January 2027. The SBTi FLAG Guidance (2022) sets how land-intensive companies set science-based targets. Our post on the LSR rulebook for land emissions explains what changes.
What does this look like in practice?
Princes, the food and drink group, used Terrascope to map its value chain and found that its top five activities made up more than 60% of its emissions. That told the team where to focus supplier work first. Read the Princes case study.
How Terrascope helps
Terrascope follows the same four steps in its platform:
- Hotspots: a full Scope 1, 2 and 3 footprint, with land emissions screened through our FLAG and LSR solution.
- Drill-down: emissions broken down by commodity, supplier, region and farm practice.
- Opportunities: reduction levers modelled before you commit budget, with FLAG and non-FLAG targets kept separate.
- Transparency: supplier data collection and audit-ready reporting for multiple frameworks.
A good place to start is our value chain mapping workshop. For a wider view of farm emissions, read our agricultural emissions 101.
Frequently asked questions
What are the main steps in decarbonising an agriculture business? Find your emission hotspots, drill into them by product, region and practice, act where you have reach and proven solutions, and report transparently. Most of the work is in Scope 3, on supplier farms.
Why are most agriculture emissions Scope 3? Because most agri-businesses buy crops and livestock products from farms they do not own. Emissions from fertiliser, livestock and land clearing on those farms count as Scope 3, Category 1 (purchased goods and services).
What is a FLAG target? A science-based target for forest, land and agriculture emissions and removals, set under SBTi's FLAG Guidance. It is set separately from targets for energy and industry emissions.
When does the GHG Protocol LSR Standard take effect? On 1 January 2027. Version 1.0 was published on 30 January 2026, with a minor update (v1.1) and companion guidance on 30 June 2026.
How do you get smallholder farmers to change practices? Reduce their risk. Training, shared equipment, guaranteed offtake and patient finance help farmers try new methods without betting their yield.
Talk to us
Want to find the hotspots in your agricultural supply chain? Contact our team.
