Cool Farm Tool
The Cool Farm Tool is a greenhouse gas calculator that is free for growers to help them measure the carbon footprint of crop and livestock products.
The Cool Farm Tool (CFT) was originally developed by Unilever and researchers at the University of Aberdeen to help growers measure and understand on-farm greenhouse gas emissions. The tool is designed to be simple to use, but scientifically robust in the complex arena of carbon accounting. The CFT has been tested and adopted by a range of multinational companies who are using it to work with their suppliers to measure, manage, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the effort to mitigate global climate change.
The CFT is a farm-level greenhouse gas emissions calculator based on empirical research from a broad range of published data sets. It is designed to be approachable and easy to complete based on information that a farmer will have readily available. The tool identifies hotspots and makes it easy for farmers to test alternative management scenarios and identifies those that will have a positive impact on the total net greenhouse gas emissions. Unlike many other agricultural greenhouse gas calculators, the CFT includes calculations of soil carbon sequestration, which is a key feature of agriculture that has both mitigation and adaptation benefits.
The CFT was vetted, improved, and adapted over two years (2010-12) through the global farming assessment Cool Farming Options, led by the Sustainable Food Lab in conjunction with University of Aberdeen and Unilever. Cool Farming Options was supported by 17 sponsoring partners and involved CFT pilots in 16 crops in 15 countries. The project had an additional eight non-sponsoring partners with pilots in seven other countries and six other crops.
Please download the CFT and use it on your farm or with your supply chain. We are still in the early stages of development – with lots more to come – and really welcome feedback from users to help us develop. We will be building a user community and feedback function, but for now please Contact Us directly with your input.
To learn more about the CFT's creation, find out About Us.