23rd March 2021
Frontier Agriculture has made an ambitious and industry-leading commitment to bring carbon emissions from its own direct operations to net zero by 2030.
This target far exceeds the UK government’s deadline of 2050 and will be achieved through improving the environmental performance of site facilities, operational activities and company vehicles to reduce the company’s carbon intensity. Utilising renewable energy sources and alternative fuels will play a key part in achieving this goal.
Early progress
Managing director at Frontier, Mark Aitchison notes, “We are committed to maintaining good environmental practice across our business through our ‘Responsible Choice’ sustainability initiative. Our continued efforts to find more sustainable solutions will go beyond what is legally required of us."
Carbon footprint reduction has been an objective at Frontier for a number of years, with the company bringing down its operational emission rate by 28% between 2015 and 2019. The company also cut its overall CO2 equivalent (CO2e) per £1,000,000 of turnover from 10.3 tonnes in 2015 to 9.49 tonnes in 2020.
“Our pledge to become net zero carbon equivalent emissions by 2030 is challenging but we believe it is achievable,” Mark explains. “We have a dedicated in-house team working on multiple projects to help us meet this goal.”
The roadmap to net zero at Frontier
Over the next year Frontier will pilot sustainable solutions in key areas including:
• Bulk grain haulage
• Crop production deliveries
• Grain drying
• Alternative fuels.
In addition to this, Frontier plans to increase its production of renewable energy with the installation of more on-site solar panels.
Solar energy installed at a Frontier site
Supporting farmers with sustainable crop production
Alongside efforts to improve its own environmental impact, Frontier has also invested in the development of advice and tools to help farmers achieve their own sustainability goals. One example of this is Frontier’s Soil Life service and research sites, which provide farmers with action-oriented data to improve the health and resilience of their soils. Environmental specialists Kings and precision farming expert SOYL are part of the Frontier group too. Frontier, Kings and SOYL have recently launched an industry leading environmental mapping tool. The tool enables farmers to plan, record and manage their natural capital, preparing them for future payment schemes linked to results such as ELMs. The tool is part of Frontier’s farm management digital platform, MyFarm.
