The carbon footprint of the UK potato

CLIENT

ADAS

PURPOSE

To illustrate their capability to help farmers manage and reduce emissions.

DESCRIPTION

Film that combines live action and animation to explore the carbon footprint of the UK potato at personal and farm scales.

ADAS, the land and farming consultancy, wanted to compliment the earlier film that we made to illustrate emissions, sequestration & stored carbon on upland farms in the Peak District National Park. This time they were keen to illustrate their capabilities in helping mainstream farmers manage and reduce their carbon emissions.

The film explores the carbon footprint of the UK potato at the personal scale, as well as carbon saving potential at the farm scale.

More info from ADAS Carbon Management Team

To see all our work for ADAS, click here.

Carbon Visuals is keen to explore the use of film for helping everyone better understand carbon emissions from everyday activities. Please contact us if you have ideas.

Emissions, sequestration & stored carbon on upland farms

Carbon Visuals have created this short animation film to show the emissions, sequestration & stored carbon on ten upland farms in the Peak District National Park. The farms extend over 1,500 hectares and comprise part moorland, part pasture.

The data was taken from ADAS Report Environmental Quality Mark (EQM) Farm Carbon Footprint and Water Audit Pilot Project.

The core message from the film is that these farms are not only producing food and preserving the landscape. They are performing an important role as guardians of a huge carbon store that is best kept in soils and vegetation.

We believe that this is a 'world first' for this type of medium. Created for the consultancy ADAS, the film demonstrates the potential for moving animation to communicate complex carbon stories.

The film is being used to engage a variety of stakeholders including ADAS staff, farm managers and agricultural policymakers.

To see all our work for ADAS, click here.

If you like this approach, and feel that it would suit your particular carbon communication challenge, then please contact us.

Total annual emissions of CO2, methane and nitrous oxide on the audited farms was 4,200 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent gas.

The carbon audit found that around 1,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent has been sequestered in soils and vegetation by the ten farms of this upland landscape over the year.

This 1,000 tonnes would cover the 1,500 hectare area to a depth of 4 cm.

Adas have estimated that 736 thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent are stored in the soils and vegetation just for the ten farms in the study.

Showcasing ADAS carbon consultancy capability

Annual emissions from UK agriculture (actual volume) alongside the carbon footprint of ADAS.

Current annual carbon footprint of ADAS (actual volume)

The current annual carbon footprint of ADAS (actual volume)

The projected annual carbon footprint of ADAS (actual volume) showing the savings to be achieved from the carbon reduction plan

Carbon footprint of a kilogram of potatoes procured in the public sector (actual volume)

Carbon footprint of a kilogram of potatoes procured in the public sector (actual volume of gas)

ADAS provides environmental solutions, rural development services and policy advice. The company is leading projects on GHG methodologies and mitigation measures for food production and agriculture in the UK.

For both simple and complex foods, the key is to understand the production processes of crops and animals in intensive, extensive and organic production systems.

The company asked Carbon Visuals to provide a series of images to showcase their carbon management consulting capability to the food and agriculture sector.

We created images depicting the carbon footprint of potatoes in relation to the production of school meals in the UK. In addition we provided an animated film showing the emissions, sequestration and stored carbon on ten Peak District farms.

Finally we produced a set of images to show the company's own carbon footprint and their reduction target. This included a comparison with the total emissions from UK agriculture - which they are able to influence through their consultancy practices.