Carbon accounting for food and drink supply chains.
Food and drink companies face Scope 3 dominance from agricultural supply chains, retailer requirements, and SECR compliance.
3,500+
UK food manufacturers
90%+
Of emissions are Scope 3
Courtauld
50% reduction target by 2030
Regulations that apply
The challenge
What food & drink are facing
Agricultural Scope 3 is dominant and complex
For most food and drink companies, over 90% of emissions come from purchased agricultural ingredients. Calculating these requires commodity-specific emission factors and land-use data that most companies don't have.
Retailer demands are escalating
Tesco, Sainsbury's, M&S — major retailers require carbon data from suppliers as a condition of listing. No data, no shelf space. The requests are getting more detailed every year.
Product-level footprints
Beyond company reporting, there's growing demand for product-level carbon footprints. Consumers, retailers, and regulators want to know the carbon cost of individual SKUs.
Seasonal production variation
Harvests, seasonal products, and variable throughput make year-on-year comparison difficult. You need intensity metrics that account for production volume changes.
For most food and drink companies, 90%+ of emissions are Scope 3 from agricultural supply chains — the one area most companies haven't measured.
The solution
How Climatise helps
Agricultural supply chain estimation
Estimate emissions from purchased ingredients using commodity-specific factors and spend data.
See this feature →Retailer-ready data exports
Generate carbon data in the formats major retailers require. Tesco, Sainsbury's, M&S templates built in.
See this feature →Product-level footprinting
Calculate carbon per unit for individual product lines using ingredient, processing, and packaging data.
Multi-framework reporting
SECR, Courtauld, SBTi — all from one data set. No duplication.
See this feature →Common questions
Food & Drink carbon reporting FAQ
Start with spend-based estimation using commodity-specific emission factors (e.g. per kg of wheat, dairy, palm oil). As your supply chain data matures, switch to supplier-specific data for your highest-impact ingredients. Climatise supports both approaches.
Courtauld 2030 is a voluntary commitment to reduce food waste, GHG emissions, and water use across the UK food and drink supply chain by 50% by 2030. Signatories need to measure and report annually against these targets.
Yes. Climatise can calculate carbon per unit or per kg for individual products using ingredient composition, processing energy, and packaging data. This is increasingly required by retailers and useful for consumer-facing labelling.
Related terms
Platform
The full platform behind these numbers
Data Upload
Drag & drop your data. No templates, no formatting.
Calculations
Instant Scope 1, 2 & 3 with full audit trail.
Reporting
1-click compliant reports for SECR, CSRD, ISSB.
Reductions
Scenario modelling and target tracking.
Chat
Ask anything about your emissions data.
Suppliers
Automated questionnaires and Scope 3 data.