In 2025 the EU requires according the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) (https://finance.ec.europa.eu/capital-markets-union-and-financial-markets/company-reporting-and-auditing/company-reporting/corporate-sustainability-reporting_en ) all EU companies with >250 employees, >EUR 40 mln turnover or >EUR 20 mln in assets have to report on their Environment, Social and Governance goals and performance over the year 2024. Therefore the reporting structure should be in place on 31-12-2023. The carbon footprint is the most common environmental indicator to be looked at.

One year later the smaller EU companies have to comply with the same CSRD regulation.

The footprint consists of three components:

1. Scope 1: Use of own materials and energy: what is the footprint of the goods you are producing (factory), including electricity, gas, and fuel for offices and transport of employees.
2. Scope 2: Purchased electricity, gas, and fuel, do these come with a green certification or not
3. Scope 3: Purchased raw materials and their contents. This is the most complex of the three because you have to acquire the information from your suppliers. These suppliers can do it themselves or if they do not have the necessity (because of size), or they rely on your company to prepare it for them, this has the advantage that it is provided using one single standard. In case your suppliers are farms, it is important to look at both the footprint but also the carbon storage in the soil, balancing both is key. The question is always: is there a good balance between impact and effort.

You can distinguish between a:

• product footprint
• company footprint

A product footprint provides you and your clients with the footprint per product. Footprints per product can vary, depending on content and choices made in the “design of the product”.

A company footprint provides the footprint of the company. Based on the needs of the relevant authority you have to hand in directly or via your registered accountant. But apart from compliance reasons, the footprint gives great insights into your options to optimize your production process.

For the reporting, you have to comply with a given standard. To make the relevant calculations you need to have the underlying relevant data. In general the purchased goods, the produced goods, and the required energy for the production & sales of the goods. You have to distinguish between:

• Product footprint
• Company footprint

The reporting can refer to a report but also as a data feed for a dashboard. Reports normally are based on a standard, this standard is provided by the relevant authority or the accountant.

Scope 3 carbon footprinting is more complex due to dealing with all your suppliers, the need to implement a standard, and agreeing on using the data for certain purposes and it requires work from you, your clients, or somebody else (consultant). In addition, the data quality should be monitored, to make sure that the results make sense and be used for reduction purposes later on.

FoodInsights helps its clients with the tools and the consultants to do the reporting work for them. With the specific knowledge of food supply chains and their sensitivities and the availability of the tooling to get clients quickly going, FoodInsights has a specialization in this field.

FoodInsights does not cost money but helps you to make money. With the available tooling, we help you to automate your reporting, not only for one year but also for the years to come. We can set you up for one footprint report, but also for a process of footprint reports or dashboard. In general, we agree on a price for a project, based on the amount of required reports, their depth, and the customization. But setting you up for one or a few footprints is normally the start.

Yes, we can. Our consultants are equipped with the tooling and knowledge to make it work for food companies and their suppliers upstream. Depending on your need for reporting for compliance or provision of the right data for your supply chain optimization, we are able to make it work for your organization.

We expect clients to have a clear picture of the goals and requirements before we start the project. And of course, we can help with the last bits & parts. In the course of running the project, both the client and FoodInsights can provide the operational project manager. In the last case, reporting is important to make sure the client is up to date all the time about the project.

Decision support is normally the next step after the realization of carbon footprint reporting for the CSRD in 2025. As the EU wants to reduce its carbon footprint by 2030 by 55%, retailers, brands but also major purchasing organisations require their suppliers to support them in achieving this ambition. Therefore good insights into how to reduce the footprint are relevant, including the underlying opportunities that are out there. Our tooling is designed to provide this support, also after the first compliance reporting is done.