Sustainability
million calories produced
kg CO2e/ha net emissions for arable crops
kg CO2e/ha net emissions for horticultures
of electricity is renewable
“We want to be transparent and have traceability of what we are doing.”
- Mette Duedahl Høyer, Chief Sustainability Officer
Welcome to our latest Farming with Nature report
Since Ingleby Farms was founded in 1998, we have remained dedicated to sustainable farming. In 2019, we committed ourselves to regenerative farming practices, or as we call it in daily terms: Farming with Nature.
We produce nutritious food, feed and fibre, yet at the same time we want to make a lasting impact: beautiful farms and living landscapes with rich biodiversity, good water quality, healthy soil with high levels of sequestered carbon and strong resilience to climate change. Because – as we all know – the climate is changing.
Therefore, we also want to do our part to mitigate the negative impact. We are determined to find ways to be more energy efficient and release fewer harmful greenhouse gases into the air. While pesticides and fertilisers help us grow food, they can also harm the environment, biodiversity and our health. We are working hard to use them even more wisely and safely.
Our team members are the heart of our operation. We are investing in training and development to encourage our employees to thrive, excel and be safe every day.
This report is our way of showing you how we are working to protect nature, fight climate change, phase out the use of synthetic pesticides, and use fertilisers more responsibly.
We are excited to share our story with you!
Mette Duedahl Høyer Chief Sustainability Officer
Sustainability strategy
We believe mimicking the way nature works, using our Farming with Nature approach, is the way forward for sustainable food production. Healthy soil is the foundation of everything Ingleby Farms does. In a warming world, healthy soil will be even more valuable because it stands up better to drought, floods and other extreme weather events, while also being able to sequester carbon and mitigate climate change.
Riverlea farm, New Zealand
Water habitat on Felton Farm, Western Australia
Sustainability framework
We have adopted a holistic approach to sustainability. This means we address the social, environmental and financial impacts of all our activities. Traceability and transparency are vital to this matter, and we keep records of how we farm to show how we care for people, animals and nature.
Bee hives at Campo D'Oro in Romania
Deadwood in Iedera Forest makes a perfect habitat for fungi
Cover crops in pistachio orchard at Burrel Ranch, California
Our metrics for a greener future
A main principle of our Sustainability Memorandum, originating back to 2006, is that “a farm in good heart is easily recognisable”.
While that is still true, we track on 50 metrics to satisfy our craving for continuous learning and improvement. Tracking helps us understand what works – and what doesn’t work. We use the data to make our farms even better – from soil, livestock and crops, to climate, biodiversity, safety, education and community outreach.
Sustainability tracking and reporting are strong and well-established parts of our way of operating. It helps us uphold our values and affirm our commitment to farm for a greener future.
years of reporting
sustainability metrics
regional sustainability reports annually
crops, meat, wool, dairy and forestry
Data-driven sustainability report
All our farms generate yearly Production & Sustainability Reports containing heaps of data points. These reports help us retain a farm-wide perspective, remain systematic, coordinate our actions and predict outcomes. We use an evidence-based approach to monitor and record our water and soil quality, our biodiversity, animal health and welfare, as well as safety and training. We record our inputs such as fertilisers, pesticides, water, energy and veterinary medicines as well as how efficiently we use these inputs. And, of course, we measure our harvests and yields.
Our reporting standards have room for farms of all sizes, producing a diverse range of foods and fibres adapted to local conditions and global markets. We use state-of-the-art, science-based practices that maximize productivity and profit while regenerating our soil and the environment around us. We monitor for short term decision making and adapt for long-term strategy.
We quantify all these indicators to create evidence-based feedback loops between how we farm, and how our farms fare. This data-driven approach allows our curious mindset opportunities to continuously learn more about the wonderfully complex biological systems of interrelated components.
Solar panels installed on the roof at Paigiria farm, Lithuania
Wind mill installed on Don Aurelio farm in Argentina
Gas pump
Waste being sorted for recycling, Olmos farm, Peru
UN Global Compact
We comply with UN Global Compact’s principles on environment, human rights, labour and anti-corruption.
Farming can play a significant role in advancing The Ten Universal Principles on environment, human rights, labour and anti-corruption. We recognise that we can both promote and advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while also taking inspiration in refining our own model of sound, regenerative agriculture. Our Farming with Nature journey and internal goals are aligned with six of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
To measure and track progress with these commitments, we have developed customised and actionable plans for each farm. Their consolidated progress can be viewed in our Progress chapter.
tonnes CO2e emissions removed
tonnes of woody perennials carbon stock
Carbon emissions: Scope and methodology
As a natural part of our sustainability reports, we calculate our carbon emission using the Cool Farm Tool® and local emission calculators.
We have defined our operational boundaries for responsibility of direct and indirect emissions, according to recommendations from The GHG Protocol Agricultural Guidance.
We report all scope 1 and 2 emissions. From scope 3 emissions, we include the transport of goods to the farm and synthetic fertiliser production. We do not include transport and freight of our produce to end destinations beyond our farm gates.
Currently, we are investigating how best to measure Scope 3 emissions.
First rain in a long time
energy from solar power generated on-farm
renewable energy from the grid
Energy use
We continually monitor our energy use to improve both the production and environmental performance of our systems. Across all our farms and offices, 67% of the electricity consumption (scopes 1 and 2), is renewably sourced.
In some of the regions where we farm, the national energy grids are mostly comprised of renewable energy sources. For example, most of the electricity used in Tasmania, Uruguay and New Zealand comes from hydro and wind generation.
Pistachio processing facility at Burrel Ranch, California
Energy use
The increase in total gigajoules used the last five years, is due to establishing our own pistachio processing plant in California, along with new cooling and packing facilities for blueberries in Peru and Romania. The new pistachio processing facility is a high user of natural gas.
Another factor of decreasing energy use efficiency (yield/GJ) is our move towards growing more seed crops during the last 10 years, which yield less per hectare than traditional commodity crops. Also, the tonnes produced in Peru are, at this stage, still relatively low due to young plants. Once full production is reached, the energy use efficiency will likely improve.
of our global use of electricity is for irrigation
of the solar energy is generated on our farms
Carbon stock measured for woody perennial habitats
During 2023, we have completed a carbon storage estimate for woody habitat and selected woody perennials for all our farms. This was done in an effort to quantify the carbon stored in our uncultivated areas, thereby enhancing the accuracy of our overall carbon inventory calculations.
The collected data indicates the total carbon currently being stored in the biomass in the woody habitats. Future assessments are required to measure the change in carbon storage over time. Surplus carbon can then be utilised in our biogenic sequestration calculations.
Aside from being able to use the data in our calculations, we carry out the assessments in consideration of additionality and permanence. We want to get insights into the amount of carbon that would not have been stored without Ingleby Farms’ intervention, along with data on long-term storage of carbon (>100 years).
Forest in Romania
Blueberries in Peru
Peruvian blueberries turning net positive
Our horticulture crops – avocados, blueberries, table grapes and pistachios - are overall showing a 96% reduction in GHG emissions since our benchmark year 2018/19. Blueberries and avocados account for the primary reduction, in fact for the second year both our Romanian blueberries and Peruvian avocados are climate positive. Table grapes are also close to showing a negative net emission.
Pistachios, on the contrary, are our biggest source of emission in our horticulture production, primarily due to energy use in processing. In general, energy used in the growing, processing and refrigeration of horticultural crops are the highest source of emissions, followed by fertiliser (production and application).
The emission from our horticulture crops is being assessed with the Cool Farm Tool (CFT), a well-established and acknowledged greenhouse gas (GHG) calculator. Since last year there has been an update to how the tool calculates the GHG impact of our farming practices. Because of this update we have had to update our recorded data retrospectively to our benchmark year. This has resulted in our avocados showing a negative net emission since 2021/22. Although we are pleased that our numbers turned out better than initially calculated by CFT, we also recognise that the general science behind these kinds of calculations still is in the making.
We believe, we have a significant responsibility as farmers to mitigate the emission related to farming. The primary reason for our horticulture crops showing a downwards emission trend and turning climate positive is due to how we incorporate regenerative farming principles in our orchards. Regenerative practices, such as tree planting and adding cover crops within the orchards, are shown to sequester significant amounts of carbon.
2030 goal: Zero waste
We believe that we have a significant degree of responsibility for the environmental impacts of the products used on our farms throughout the entire life-cycle. This includes impacts inherent in the selection of products to use on our farms, as well as downstream impacts from the use and disposal of said products.
In order to minimise our environmental impact, we follow a hierarchical approach to waste management:
- Refuse waste whenever possible
- Reduce the amount of waste produced
- Reuse waste that can be used again
- Recycle the appropriately labelled waste
- Recover energy from or compost waste when applicable
- Dispose of waste properly to minimise environmental impact
We do not bury or dump any waste, generated on our farms or in our forests, into drains or any waterbodies.
Our climate journey
Row crop benchmarking
We have completed two-year benchmarks for major cereal, oil and seed crop GHG footprints.
Fruit and nut benchmarking
We have started assessing our fruit crops in the Cool Farm Tool®. We have completed a two-year benchmarks for all major perennial horticulture crops, such as avocados, grapes, blueberries and pistachios.
Dairy, beef and lamb benchmarking
Experimental livestock assessments are underway, and we will finalise GHG footprints for our dairy production, plus our sheep, cattle and integrated farms during 2022.
Forests and habitats
We are currently investigating how to best measure carbon captured in regenerating habitats on farm together with our mixed forestry. This benchmark will be in place by mid-2023.
GHG inventory
After completing GHG benchmarks for each of our production groups, we will proceed to compile a company-wide GHG inventory for scopes 1, 2, and 3.
Science-based targets set
We are inspired by the push of the Paris Agreement to limit temperature increase to 1.5 degrees, and we aim to have a sciencebased target in place by 2024.
Individual farm plans
In FY 23/24, we will start working on our individual farm GHG emission reduction and sequestration plans. We want to ensure that each farm’s geographical location and production type is taken into account, so that the plans are suitable and sustainable on the local level.
