The Green Note: Orchestrating climate action in global food supply chains
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement, at a time when the cost of climate inaction is sounding loud and clear. If wildfires in one of the richest places in the world can cause destruction of such magnitude, what does that mean for remote farming areas and the farmers, businesses and consumers they serve? It’s more vital than ever that we keep pushing for progress to happen at all levels: as a global community, in government decision-making, and the business world.
With this renewed focus on driving transformational impact, I'm reminded of my other passion beyond sustainability: music. As a saxophonist playing in multiple bands across jazz, funk, soul and pop genres, I’ve learned that creating transformative music requires more than individual virtuosity – it demands precise coordination, timing, and harmony across the entire ensemble.
The same holds true for climate action in global food supply chains. Like the horn sections in a band trying to work in perfect sync, at ofi, working with farming communities across the globe to grow, source and produce food ingredients and solutions, we’re orchestrating a multi-layered approach on climate action. We’ve already done a lot of the theoretical construct – our overarching sustainability strategy Choices for Change provides the musical score that makes it easy for customers and stakeholders to understand our approach, progress, and impact across all products and ingredients.
It sets ambitious targets that include halving Scope 1 & 2 emissions and cutting Scope 3 by 30% by 2030, in line with SBTi. We’ve laid out the ‘how’ with action plans to achieve these targets and deliver interconnected benefits. And these are backed by policies, specialist manuals, digital tools and our sustainability management system AtSource.
But here's the thing about music – and climate action: It's not just about hitting the right notes. It's about innovation, adaptation, and synchronizing diverse elements for maximum effect. Low-carbon cocoa and coffee handbooks guide our field teams on the most impactful climate-smart practices to incorporate into their training sessions with farmers. Granular farm data gathered by our teams on the ground flows into AtSource and the smart tools that are embedded and developed by our climate action team - a Digital Footprint Calculator, Carbon Scenario Planner, and Carbon Sequestration Monitoring tool. In combination, they bring AI-powered analysis and robustly modelled scenarios that allow us to track changes in forest cover and carbon stocks across our supply chains and design programs with our customers to deliver long-term greenhouse gas reductions.
Just as in music, there's no solo path to tackling climate change. It’s too complex with too many uncertainties to be scored in detail. Which is why our focus remains on working hand-in-hand with our customers, NGOs, certification agencies, development finance institutions, local governments and of course, the farmers themselves, to scale impact. Everyone has a part to play.
The most powerful ensembles are formed from bringing together multiple players in production landscapes under a long-term and large-scale plan to achieve holistic transformational change for nature and people. Like in Côte d’Ivoire, where ofi’s coffee team has joined forces with IDH, roaster JDE Peets, regional councils and local cooperatives to conserve forest resources and promote sustainable coffee production in the Cavally region, home to the largest protected area of rainforest in West Africa. This is one of our 7 active ‘living landscape partnerships’ and we’ve committed to establishing 20 by 2030. An approach that resonates with one of the prominent soundbites to come out of COP29; that “radical collaboration” is the only way to solve the big climate challenges we face.
As we look ahead to COP30, the rich biodiversity and ecological importance of the Amazonian backdrop should serve as a stark reminder of what’s at stake if we don’t make the right choices to accelerate climate action. I invite fellow sustainability leaders to join our orchestra for change. Let's create harmony between business growth and environmental stewardship.
Because when it comes to climate action, we're all in the same band.
#BetheChange #ClimateAction #Sustainability #FoodSystems #COP30
