Around the world, there has been a massive increase in actions to try to slow down the rate of climate change. We know what is needed: rapid cuts in greenhouse gas emissions until we reach a point where no more emissions are accumulating in the atmosphere. This point is called ‘net zero’, where any greenhouse gases emitted are balanced out by what is absorbed or removed again. The sooner we get there, the better!
In October 2024, Blue North Sustainability had the privilege of attending Fruit Attraction 2024 in Madrid. This international trade fair brings together the fresh fruit industry, with participants spanning continents and industries. Over 100,000 attendees filled ten halls across the convention center, creating a vibrant space for networking, product showcasing, and exploring advancements in technology and sustainability. The convention serves as a critical platform for networking and collaboration, making it an ideal stage for Confronting Climate Change (CCC) to connect with new and existing partners and clients.
Carbon Heroes is an online recognition platform. The platform celebrates agri-businesses taking part in the Confronting Climate Change (CCC) Initiative for their considerable effort in calculating and understanding their carbon emissions.
Confused? Not to worry! Let’s unpack this...
A reflection on our Light Workshop using our attendees' feedback. Our Light Workshops are an introduction to carbon footprinting. The CCC team explains the value in calculating your carbon footprint, gives a step-by-step run through on how to use the CCC tool, and the team offers guidance on data entering. The feedback we have received on this workshop has been overwhelmingly positive.
With the start of a new year well underway we welcome a fresh schedule of Confronting Climate Change (CCC) workshops. CCC now offers three tiers of workshops, each providing the client with vital information on carbon footprinting and building on the previous workshop. Our Light, Full, and Agri-Carbon Crash course workshops will run over the course of 2024.
If carbon footprinting interests you and you would like to learn more, or if you have previously done one of our workshops and would like to deepen your knowledge on carbon footprinting, click below to read more...
Carbon Heroes is an innovative platform that recognises and celebrates organisations committed to calculating and understanding their carbon emissions within the Confronting Climate Change (CCC) Initiative. Click on Read More to find out about some new developments.
CCC approached Steven Versfeld, a pome fruit grower, dedicated CCC user, and the current owner of Achtertuin Farm, to share his sustainability story and some of his experiences with the online carbon calculator. Click on Read More to find out what they said and how the CCC carbon calculator contributed to their sustainability journey.
We are excited to announce the re-launch of Carbon Heroes, a platform to celebrate all B-graded agri-businesses taking part in the Confronting Climate Change (CCC) Initiative for their considerable effort in calculating and understanding their carbon emissions.
Our Carbon Heroes now receive several valuable resources designed to help them showcase their achievements and further their efforts, which include a Personalised QR Code, Guidelines, and an Individual Landing Page.
Click here to read more...
CCC asked a wine grape farm, cellar, and CCC user to share their sustainability initiatives and some of their experiences with the online carbon calculator.
Click on Read More to find out what they said and how the CCC carbon calculator contributed to their sustainability journey.
Introducing the History report, a new functionality added to the CCC tool that allows you to track your CO2e emissions over multiple years. Every organization is unique, and although the regional benchmarks are very useful, it’s always best to compare yourself with yourself. The history report provides an overview of total emissions, taking into account all the years that have been measured and graded, allowing you to understand your long-term trends and better plan and implement your reduction targets. Total CO2e emissions, CO2e emissions per commodity or per boundary, product carbon footprint, and consumption history can all be viewed.
CCC asked a wine cellar and CCC user to share their sustainability initiatives and some of their experiences with the online carbon calculator.
We asked two avocado producers/packers and CCC users to share some of their experiences with the online carbon calculator.
Read more to find out what they said and how the CCC carbon calculator contributed to their respective sustainability journeys.
With the start of a new year well underway we welcome a fresh schedule of Confronting Climate Change (CCC) workshops. CCC now offers three tiers of workshops, each providing the client with vital information on carbon footprinting and building on the previous workshop. Our Light, Full, and Advanced workshops will run over the course of 2023, starting from the 21st of February.
Confronting Climate Change launched a new carbon footprint label and website at the end of 2021 to recognise our B-graded license holders for meticulously calculating their carbon footprint. They are the Carbon Heroes of the South African Wine and Fruit Industry!
Visit www.carbonheroes.co.za to see how numbers of the CCC Carbon Heroes have grown.
Follow us on social media to see when new Carbon Heroes arrive on the website: https://twitter.com/Confrontclimate
Blueberries have grown in popularity in recent years with shoppers attracted to their taste, convenience, and health qualities. However, consumers’ desire for fruit produced in a socially and environmentally conscious manner have put pressure on blueberry farmers to produce and pack their fruit more sustainably.
See our latest case study on how blueberry producers can reduce their carbon emissions in a sustainable way that also makes financial sense. We also spoke to Avinier, one of our users and a blueberry producer to share some feedback on their experience with the CCC online carbon calculator.
Click on the below link to read more...
CCC asked two pome and/or stone fruit producers and CCC users to share some of their experiences with the online carbon calculator. Read more to find out what they said and how the CCC carbon calculator contributed to their respective sustainability journeys.
The CCC team is looking forward to engaging with you via our scheduled workshops during 2022! Please keep in mind that we are more than happy to schedule a tailored training session with you to address your specific carbon footprinting or emission reduction needs. Please contact us for a cost estimate.
Please remember that our Light Carbon Footprint workshops are presented at no cost at all, and we encourage you to attend these to learn more about calculating your farm, packhouse, cold store, CA store, winery and distribution carbon footprint.
The Full carbon footprint workshops is presented at a fee as detailed below. In order to receive a competency certificate after the Full Carbon Footprint workshop, you will need to complete a competency exercise that will be explained to you during the workshop.
No preparation is needed for the workshops, but we do encourage you to register well in advance. Dates and other information also available on www.climatefruitandwine.co.za.
Confronting Climate Change (CCC) is proud to announce that we have launched a new carbon footprint label and website where our B-graded license holders are recognised for meticulously calculating their carbon footprint. They are the Carbon Heroes of the South African Wine and Fruit Industry!
Visit www.carbonheroes.co.za to view our first batch of Carbon Heroes. The platform will grow and show many more farms in future, so please be sure to check back regularly as we add new Heroes.
We are excited to announce the Confronting Climate Change online workshops for the rest of 2020! Please follow the link to indicate your interest in specific workshops.
Workshop form link: https://forms.gle/AEBTCyvdaCv6fs838
The Light Carbon Footprint workshops will remain free for the rest of the year. Our other workshops do however carry a cost.
It is recommended that you attend a CCC training session at least once to allow you to understand the basic principles of carbon footprint calculation and how to calculate a quality carbon footprint with the Confronting Climate Change Carbon Calculator. CCC is also planning to host online workshops at no cost during April and May 2020. Please subscribe to our newsletter to make sure that you are informed of dates and registrations for these workshops.
You can’t manage what you don’t measure” – Peter Drucker
It is a well-known adage in business that “you can’t manage what you don’t measure”. While it would be an oversimplification to assume that a business can be run on visible figures alone, the development of metrics or quantified performance indicators are integral in understanding the impact or effect of change on a business’s performance. While ‘performance’ has traditionally been synonymous with economic indicators, the societal shift towards sustainability is driving businesses to adopt a more holistic definition of performance, including environmental and social indicators.
When it comes to environmental performance, carbon emissions provide an obvious indicator, with emission reduction strategies playing a key role in curtailing the climate crisis. The observable effects of climate change and increasing global awareness of the magnification potential thereof has resulted in both political and consumer driven pressures on businesses to expedite the transition to sustainable operation.
Measuring and understanding your carbon footprint is therefore an important step in your business’s sustainability journey. The following article looks at why you should calculate your carbon footprint and the global drivers – including retailer commitments – for improved carbon emission quantification and reduction.
Increasing global understanding of the impact and effects of climate change has seen increasing emphasis and pressure on reducing carbon emissions across the supply chain. However, when it comes to agriculture it is not always easy to implement the necessary changes due to various factors such as cost barriers, and a lack of understanding about where
The past few years have seen a significant shift in the way that governments are responding to the climate crisis. The introduction of carbon pricing mechanisms has seen particular momentum. In essence, carbon pricing works by putting a price on carbon emissions with the aim of bringing down emissions, driving investment into clean technology and fueling low-carbon economic growth.
We are very excited to start with our workshop series on 25 April. Please make sure you book well in advance to secure your seat! Remember that you can book and pay directly online or complete the registration form. Remember that you can book and pay directly online or complete the registration form and request an invoice from us. Invoices for online bookings is generated immediately.
To effectively realise and respond to the opportunities and challenges posed by climate change the Confronting Climate Change (CCC) Project was started in 2009 as a strategic cross-industry initiative aimed at supporting the South African fruit and wine sectors’ efforts. Besides provision of a freely available on-line carbon emissions calculator the CCC promotes technical training supporting its adoption and use and has actively engaged with the retailers and importers to secure their support for the project. The results are accepted and feed in to existing retailer sustainability requirements. This helps to avoid duplication of carbon footprinting systems. Farms, packhouses, wineries and other entities across the supply-chain are enabled to undertake accurate measurement of the energy-use and carbon-emissions intensity of their respective business activities.
The Fruit and Wine Industry bodies of South Africa, represented by SATI, Hortgro Pome, Hortgro Stone, CGA and Winetech, own The CCC Initiative, and together with the Western Cape Department of Agriculture, have funded the initiative since its formation in 2008. The CCC Initiative is now a well-established and international award winning project that has reached a high level of adoption and acceptance by farmers, packers, wineries and customers alike. In order to ensure its ongoing growth and value into the future, the industry bodies have made the decision to accelerate the commercialisation of the project.
Grain SA initiated the Carbon Footprint project, with Phase 1 aiming to calculate and compare the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of different farming systems in the winter grain region in the Western Cape. An increase of GHGs in the atmosphere traps the sun’s radiation or energy directly leading to an increase in the earth’s temperature or so-called global warming (IPCC, 2007). The most common GHGs in the atmosphere are water vapour, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and ozone.
In South Africa, honeybees and their pollination services contribute an estimated R16 billion to the national GDP, of which approximately R10 billion is generated in the Western Cape (Engineering News 2015). With the changing profile of deciduous fruits, increases in vegetable production; and large increases in vegetable seed production and expansion of macadamia nut plantations, the demand for these pollination services is expected to "double over the next five years" (Allsopp[1], pers. comm. 2016). However, despite their critical value, beekeeping in South Africa faces some critical challenges, largely rooted in the lack of recognition and protection of these pollination services, from both a governmental and grower perspective. These main risk factors are outlined below.
[1] Mike Allsopp is a senior researcher within the Honeybee Research Section of the Agricultural Research Council (ARC).
In South Africa and globally there is increasing pressure from retailers and consumers for the disclosure of the embodied carbon of the products that they purchase. It is important for South African fruit and wine producers to comply with the market requirements to ensure market retention. It is furthermore important to measure and manage your emissions to reduce input costs and become more climate resilient.
The question asked by many producers are: “Which tool should I use” and “Will the information generated by the tool be accepted internationally?”. A brief analysis of the different tools and why the Confronting Climate Change (CCC) tool should be your tool of choice is outlined below.
Blue North Sustainability manages the “Confronting Climate Change” project (or CCC in short) on behalf of the South African Fruit and Wine industries. This project is now in its 8th year and focuses on supporting South African farmers, packhouses and wineries in calculating their carbon footprint. Here is a short and sharp update of what 2016 holds in store.