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Our food chains are known for being not-so-surprising in the amount of carbon they put into the atmosphere. Root Global has raised a round of funding with the aim of becoming what it calls a “carbon operating system” for the food industry. It builds software to help companies move up the food value chain to zero emissions.
Food production is complex in relation to climate change; Waste is high, and greenhouse gas emissions from food production are high. Estimates in this sector are very different. For example, the EPA reports 11% of US greenhouse emissions. Other estimates range from around 19% to 30% worldwide, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Root’s software platform enables manufacturers, food processors and retailers in the food and beverage sector to calculate carbon footprints and guide business decisions to reduce future greenhouse gas emissions.
“The climate effort is a value chain effort. We help all stakeholders in the food industry speak the same carbon language, share activity data in the same format, and calculate carbon outcomes using the same methodology,” Root co-founder Eric Oyansa said in an interview with TechCrush today. , our food system emits 16.5 billion tonnes of carbon equivalents – one in three tonnes into the atmosphere. At Root, we build the decision-making infrastructure to get to zero.
A big part of the problem is large food clusters, says Oancea.
“[Food producers] They are struggling to understand how to deal with emissions. They may know how cocoa beans are sourced, and they know how chocolate is produced, but they have no clue how to track their emissions and they don’t know how to make decisions in a way that actually lowers them. [carbon emissions]” says the OANC, expressing how pleased consumers are to put pressure on the companies they buy from. “Work is being done on product labeling to help consumers understand what they are eating. This is coming, and will probably be mandatory by the end of 2024.”
In order for product labeling to be possible, manufacturers need to know what a product’s full life cycle carbon emissions are. That’s the gap Root is hoping to fill.
“I think companies are moving faster than regulations at this point. EU regulations are basically following the early movers. Another thing that’s happened is companies are setting themselves publicly defined targets, especially science-based initiatives,” says Oyansa. For example, if you look at the adoption curve of these targets; They’ve tripled in the last two years. Suddenly, you have a significant increase in companies reporting data. But now we’re seeing SMEs and B2C brands setting targets like, ‘By 2030, I need to reduce my emissions by 45%.’ They have budgeted in. Now they need to figure out where to invest this money in their supply chain, where 95% of their footprint comes from, to reduce their carbon footprint.
Project A led a $2.6 million pre-seed financing round, from Nucleus and several angel investors with experience in company building and the food and beverage industry.
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