Overview
The Food module is designed to calculate GHG emissions from food consumption, focusing on ingredient sourcing, transportation, and waste management impacts.
It's a Scope 3 emissions module that helps companies assess their food-related carbon footprint.
Key benefits / use cases
Get a granular breakdown of your food-related emissions by product category (meat, dairy, cereals, beverages, etc.).
Improve accuracy with optional data — quality labels (Organic, Label Rouge, Bleu Blanc Coeur) unlock specific emission factors for certified products, which can significantly lower the estimated footprint.
Include country of origin and supplier data to meet SBTi requirements and enable supply chain analysis.
1. What is the Food Purchases module used for?
The purpose of this module is to calculate the environmental impact of your company’s food purchases during the reporting year. The time period covered corresponds to the financial year used for your GHG Assessment.
Food purchases are a significant source of emissions, regardless of your industry. For companies in the food sector, they represent the main source of Scope 3 emissions. However, even outside the food sector, food and beverages can account for up to 30% of the emissions associated with purchases for some organisations.
⚠️ Advanced module: The data submitted is reviewed by a Greenly analyst before being included in the results. Once your data has been imported, click “Submit for analysis” to trigger this review.💡 Difference between the “Products, Raw Materials and Packaging Purchases” module and the “Food Purchases” module
The main reason why we separate food purchases from other products is to provide you with a clearer and more detailed view of your data. By isolating food products, we can provide a more in-depth analysis and present your information in a more relevant way in the platform’s charts and reports.
This separation allows for a more detailed understanding of your spending and consumption patterns specifically related to food, helping you make more informed decisions.
3. Which data should be included in your data collection file?
⚠️ To be processed by Greenly, the data provided must be in French 🇫🇷 or English 🇬🇧
You can find your module’s data collection file by clicking on the module > Tab “2. Data collection” > “Bulk import - via template”
🎯 The data collection file contains two type of data: mandatory and optional data
👉 Mandatory data: It is the minimum necessary data to calculate the amount of CO2e related to your purchases → Without it, our algorithm cannot proceed to any calculations
The below list corresponds to the mandatory data:
Product name → Do not include non-food products, they won’t be processed by our algorithm!
Product category
Finished good name
Unitary weight
Quantity (in units → if you only have the total purchased weights per product, you can input them in the "Unitary weight" column and input "1" in the "Quantity" column)
👉 Optional data: any additional data will increase the quality and granularity of the analysis, and provide you various areas of analysisSupplier (mandatory for SBTi)
Purchase date
Price
Currency
Quality label (Organic, Bleu Blanc Coeur, Label Rouge…) → we are able to adapt the emission factors for a certain list of certified products
Other labels
Country of origin
Cross-entity purchase
Entity
Entity location
Business Unit
Description (recommended to help improving the categorization of the products)
👉 If your company works with an ERP, it may help you to collect the necessary data
3. How to upload your data
To upload your data, click on the corresponding task on the Progress page or go to Data > Data Collection > Food purchase.
1/ Use the Greenly template to upload your data. Click on "Bulk import". The template is downloaded in the same language as the platform. When using it, we ask you to fill the English one with English data and the French one with French data. You can always download the other language on the READ ME page of the template.
Import your data in the section “Upload file”. You can also provide additional files to prove or support the data you’re submitting—for traceability and auditability, in the section “File Information (optional)”. 2/ For advanced module: once your data uploaded, click on**“Submit for analysis”**. An analyst will review it and complete the module.
For end to end module: once your data uploaded, your emissions will be calculated automatically.
4. Frequent errors in data format
Make sure to complete all the mandatory fields
5. Review your data and read your results
Once you have uploaded your data, you can flag the expenses related to the module to avoid double counting and access your results. To do so, please read the related article.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to [email protected]