RII, Leading CEA Producers, and Industry Stakeholders Issue Guide to Environmental Accounting and Reporting

Written by Indoor Ag-Con on April 19, 2024. Posted in Blog.

Resource Innovation Institute (RII), a not-for-profit, public-private partnership advancing climate resilience, announced today the availability of its “Guide to Environmental Accounting and Reporting for Controlled Environment Agriculture Operations.” Resulting from the work of the CEA Footprint Project over the past year, the how to guide proposes standardized environmental accounting and reporting systems and methodologies, and encourages their market adoption across CEA operations.

“Comparing resource outputs and inputs at a facility level and across agricultural segments is increasingly critical for CEA investors and operators, as well as governments and utilities,” said Derek Smith, Executive Director of Resource Innovation Institute. “Agreement on how resources are measured is particularly important, as is the establishment of boundaries determined within the measurement systems. The sooner data can be standardized, collected and analyzed, the quicker and better decision makers can guide efficiency and decarbonization strategies and incentives.”

“The indoor farming industry has the opportunity to drive consensus on data standardization at this early stage of the industry’s growth through collaborative, well-governed efforts like the CEA Footprint Project,” said Julie Kurnik, Senior Director of Innovation Start Ups at World Wildlife Fund. “RII’s Guide establishes comprehensive CEA-specific guidance on measurement methodologies, importantly including how to establish boundaries on scope 3 carbon emissions. This type of reporting will result in consistent communication on the environmental value and direction that will drive long-term viability for technology integration into agriculture.”

A collaborative initiative by RII, producers and stakeholders, the CEA Footprint Project was formed to advance market understanding of CEA environmental impacts and resilience potential through the establishment of consistent and verifiable accounting and reporting standards. In order to develop the Guide to Environmental & Accounting Reporting, CEA Footprint Project members from the United States and Europe came together in early 2023 to discuss the most important Key Performance Indicators they use and value in their facilities, as well as to agree on which KPIs are relevant to internal and external audiences, in addition to where in the production process CEA operators should measure data. The group also aggregated detailed guidance on how producers should consider representing CEA-related Scope 3 carbon emissions boundaries and methodologies.

Participating producers that contributed to the guide included:

Hannah Bouline, Director of Impact and Sustainability, Vertical Harvest Farms
Gillon Dobie, Impact Director, Grow Up Farms
Michele Grossman, Sustainability Director, Equilibrium Capital on behalf of Revol Greens
Laura Hann, Director of Sustainability, Local Bounti
Erik Lundgren, Chief Research & Development Officer, Ljusgarda.
Doug Meikle, Financial Planning & Sustainability Manager, Grow Up Farms
Matthew Meisel, Chief Development Officer, Little Leaf Farms
Colin O’Neil, Director of Public Policy & Social Impact, Bowery Farming
Annie Wissemeier, Sustainability Senior Manager, 80 Acres Farm

accounting, carbon emissions, Climate resilience, data standardization, utilities