Online Calculator Adds To SRUC Success To Help Farms

7th March 2019

An online tool which has helped thousands of UK farms to reduce their carbon footprint has won a major industry award.

Scotland's Rural College beat entries from Volvo Group and the Scottish Government's Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme to top the Low Carbon and Energy category at the inaugural CeeD Industry Awards in Glasgow.

SRUC's Agricultural Resource Efficiency Calculator (AgRE Calc) determines resource use and greenhouse gas emissions for the whole farm, per enterprise and per unit of saleable product.

Once emissions and resource use are broken down by enterprise, experts from SRUC's commercial division, SAC Consulting, are then able to identify weaknesses, make comparisons and offer advice on reducing carbon footprints and saving money.

Senior Rural Business Consultant Julian Bell, who helped to create AgRE Calc, said: "We are delighted to receive recognition from the industry for something that is the culmination of 12 years of hard work by staff across SRUC.

"We have now delivered AgRE Calc carbon footprints to more than 2,000 UK farms. Farmers are very interested in improving the sustainability of their businesses but the complexity of environmental interactions and global supply chains can make this hard to manage.

"That is why SRUC has developed AgRE Calc and why we strive to make the tool as user friendly and practical as we can. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it, and this holds true as much for the farm’s environmental impact as it does for its finances."

Joe Pacitti, Managing Director of CeeD (Centre for Engineering Education and Development), said: "SRUC submitted a winning application which provided a solution focussed on the challenges faced by carbon emissions in the agricultural sector and which the judges felt encapsulated the focus of making an impact across a wide number of businesses."

Register to use the online calculator at www.agrecalc.com/

PHOTO

Dave Pearson (left), Chair of the CeeD Board, presents the Low Carbon and Energy Award to Teresa Shutter, Head of the SRUC Innovation Hub; Senior Rural Business Consultant Julian Bell; and Andrew Lacey, Head of SAC Consulting