What is Land Use Change?
Land Use Change measures the greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) associated with the conversion of natural lands to land for agricultural purposes. HowGood provides a statistical land use change (sLUC) metric designed in accordance with the GHG Protocol’s Draft Land Sector and Removals Guidance, which recommends companies take a sLUC approach to measuring land use change emissions where direct land use change emission factors are not available. sLUC measures the emissions due to land use change within a region or jurisdiction.
How does land use change relate to agriculture, product development, and the food system?
Land use change occurs when natural landscapes are modified for human activities. Agriculture is a significant contributor to land use change, as a result of the demand for food to feed a rapidly increasing human population over the past century.
Land use change accounting considers deforestation along with any other type of land use conversion or transition (e.g., conversion of native grasslands to intensively managed pasturelands or croplands, conversion of peatlands to agriculture and burning of agricultural residues). Reducing land use change has one of the largest climate change mitigation potentials for food and agriculture products.
What are the biggest contributors to high Land Use Change impact?
Deforestation - The clearing of perennial, hardwood forests to make way for agricultural production releases stored carbon into the atmosphere and is the biggest driver of land use change globally. The reduction of deforestation and forest degradation has been identified as one of the most effective climate mitigation activities available.
Draining - The draining of organic soils, wetlands and peatlands to prepare land for agricultural production also releases stored carbon into the atmosphere.
High land use / low yield - Crops that have a low yield relative to the amount of land they require will score poorly on Land Use Change.
How do we measure land use change impact?
Land Use Change is measured in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilogram of product (kg CO2e / kg), and takes into account the following factors to assess emissions:
Land conversion or transition - Whether land conversion or transition has occurred within a landscape or jurisdiction over the preceding 20 years, in the form of deforestation or drained soils. We include pasture in our calculations, in addition to traditional cropland. This data is reported by 245 countries to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Product allocation factor: We take the shared responsibility approach to allocating emissions to any crop that was grown in a given jurisdiction that has experienced land use change. This approach attributes land use change emissions based on the percentage of land that a crop has occupied during a given year.
Time discounting: We take a linear discounting (or “20 year decline”) approach to distributing emissions over the 20-year assessment period. This approach weights recent land use change heavier than it weights older land use change.
Crop location - We consider the jurisdiction of the crop’s location, at a national level.
Crop yield - We take into account the production yield of the crop in order to calculate land use change emissions per kilogram of product.
Ingredient concentration - We take into account the ingredient concentration value of the crop.
Regional feed mix - For animal-based ingredients, we consider the breakdown of pasture, soy and palm oil in the typical animal feed mixes regionally. Regional feed mixes are typically reflective of the crops that are predominantly grown in a region, the affordability of crops and generally accepted animal welfare standards. As we increase the granularity of our Land Use Change assessment, we will add additional feed ingredients to reflect the variability of feed mixes throughout the world.
What data inputs are required to measure Land Use Change?
Ingredient name is the only data point required by HowGood customers to measure Land Use Change emissions.
Customers can refine their Land Use Change assessment if the sourcing region of the ingredient is known. Customers that have access to more granular levels of data can incorporate it into their Land Use Change calculations for a more accurate assessment of emissions.
Key Data Sources
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Statistical Division (FAOSTAT)
Global Livestock Environmental Assessment Model (GLEAM)
How does my ingredient portfolio compare to others in the industry when it comes to land use change?
To see how your Land Use Change emissions stack up against the industry average, you can benchmark your workspaces on the Portfolio page.
What is the relationship to the HowGood Impact Score?
Land Use Change does not contribute to the HowGood Impact Score. It is a standalone metric that can be used to track the emissions associated with the conversion of land for agricultural purposes, compliant with the Science Based Targets Initiative’s (SBTi) FLAG Guidance and the GHG Protocol’s Draft Land Sector and Removals Guidance.
How do I improve impact as a product developer?
Choose ingredients with lower land use and higher yield - Choosing ingredients that have a high yield relative to the amount of land they require will improve your Land Use Change impact.
Choose a sourcing location with lower land use change - The sourcing location of a given ingredient is a major driver of its Land Use Change assessment. There are high-risk hotspots for land use change around the world for particular ingredients, such as sourcing oats from Canada, or soy from Brazil.
Substitute animal-based ingredients for plant-based ingredients with higher yield - Given that animal-based ingredients also factor in the land use associated with animal feed mixes, in addition to the land used to raise the animals themselves.
Engage suppliers to gather more detailed data - By requesting more detailed data from your suppliers via HowGood’s Sustainability Data Portal, you can gain a more accurate assessment of your Land Use Change impact. If, for example, your ingredients have not been sourced from a region that has experienced land use change within the past 20 years, this information can be ingested into Latis to reflect a better Land Use Change score.
Further Resources
References:
Roe, S., Streck, C., Obersteiner, M. et al. Contribution of the land sector to a 1.5 °C world. Nature Climate Change 9, 817–828 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0591-9.
The 20-year default assessment period for LUC is derived from IPCC’s 2003 Good Practice Guidance for Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry and the GHG Protocol’s Draft Land Sector and Removals (LSR) Guidance.
The linear discounting (or “20 year decline) approach is in accordance with the GHG Protocol Product Life Cycle Standard (Appendix B) and Draft Land Sector and Removals (LSR) Guidance.