AIA’s platform is a pre-competitive tool designed to provide an accessible, standardised way for growers from all of agriculture, fisheries and forestry to calculate their carbon footprints at a commodity, enterprise and whole of business level.

The environmental accounting platform will enable growers to baseline their businesses as well as aid decision-making around reducing carbon emissions and capturing new opportunities.

Value chain participants, corporates, solution providers and other entities will also be able to connect to the platform or build it into their own service offerings.

With support from Professor Richard Eckard, Director of Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre within the University of Melbourne, and the creator of its Greenhouse Accounting Frameworks for Australian Primary Industries, AIA is digitising and aggregating the frameworks into a common platform.

Professor Eckard said the aim of the AIA platform was that it would become the definitive carbon calculation engine for Australian agriculture, fisheries and forestry.

“Taking a cross-sectoral approach will bring disparate threads together and help Australia avoid duplication we are seeing elsewhere,” Prof. Eckard said.

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The Technical Advisory Panel’s important role is to advise AIA on relevant emerging research, best practice and potential changes required to the platform to ensure it remains up to date, aligned and compliant with the relevant standards.

Professor Richard Eckard

Director of the Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre, University of Melbourne

AIA CEO Sam Brown said the establishment of such a well credentialed panel was an exciting development on the path to delivery.

“The Panel consists of leading Australian experts in greenhouse gas accounting, emissions reduction, soil carbon management, lifecycle assessment and climate science.

“They will help ensure the platform aligns with relevant standards, research and protocols, as well as play a key governance role, and we are delighted to have such experienced and dedicated professionals on board,” Mr Brown said. The Panel representatives are*:

As Sam Brown explains, AIA’s Environmental Accounting Platform has been designed to overcome a number of challenges in order to simplify carbon accounting.

“Having a common platform supports consistent, standardised implementation of calculation models and integration with channels growers may already use and trust, like farm management software, agricultural service and agri-finance providers,” Mr Brown said.

“Choosing single or multiple commodity calculators depending on the complexity of their operations, growers can review their carbon accounting outputs, baseline their enterprises and use scenario planning to help make decisions before sharing insights with whomever they wish.

“We know that producers, especially those with mixed enterprises, often find carbon accounting confusing and cumbersome. By aggregating calculators into one engine, we will deliver a standardised platform, allowing producers to enter data once to achieve a whole of enterprise carbon footprint.

“We want to demonstrate to the world how Australian agriculture, fisheries and forestry is ahead of the curve when it comes to environmental accounting, and that it is possible to provide a consistent and easily accessible way for producers to calculate their carbon footprints and make informed decisions on how to drive environmental and economic returns for their businesses.”

The environmental accounting platform is being developed by AIA with investment from several of Australia’s rural Research and Development Corporations (RDCs), including Grains Research and Development Corporation, Meat & Livestock Australia, Australian Eggs, Australian Pork Limited, AgriFutures Australia (chicken meat), Cotton Research and Development Corporation and the Australian Meat Processor Corporation. The platform is currently in beta-testing and will be launched in early 2024.

Find out more about AIA's Environmental Accounting Platform

Contact

Sarah Castellanos, Senior Manager - Marketing and Investor Relations scastellanos@aginnovationaustralia.com.au or ph: 0429 988 174