Foodsteps, a UK startup helping companies calculate and label their carbon footprint, has partnered with the Good Food Institute to launch an automated life cycle assessment (LCA) tool for alternative protein products.
Previously, a lack of robust, standardized data for alternative proteins has made it difficult and expensive for the industry to commission LCAs. But the new tool makes it simple for companies to assess the impact of their products, from agricultural stage to factory gate.
The free version of the software measures impact across five areas — greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water use, eutrophication, and acidification. A premium version with additional features is also available, allowing businesses to make substantiated, credible claims about the environmental impact of their alternative protein products.
If a product is found to have a high impact, the tool can help the company reformulate it or develop new, more sustainable options.
Avoiding greenwashing claims
Research consistently shows that alternative proteins have a lower environmental impact than animal products; a report published by GFI last year found that plant-based beef uses up to 99% less land and water than conventional beef, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by up to 90% and eutrophication potential by up to 91%. Significant reductions in environmental impact were also found for pork and chicken alternatives.
However, it can be difficult for individual companies to prove the environmental credentials of their products if they cannot commission a bespoke full-scale LCA, which can cost as much as $100,000. The new Foodsteps software provides a potential solution.
“Most alternative protein companies that want to make a company and product-specific environmental claim lack robust, standardized, and representative supporting data, which has resulted in several companies facing criticism of greenwashing that damage both the individual companies and also the industry more broadly,” said Tom Chapman, food systems impact adviser for GFI, in a webinar last year. “[LCAs] can be used to confirm whether a product meets regulatory or legal requirements, help estimate the impacts of complying with expected or announced new regulations, create baselines and compare the industry results, model product lifecycle, and test different scenarios to identify optimal production systems.”
