Environmental calculator

Agriculture has a major impact on our environment, both adverse and beneficial. To understand these impacts, farmers need to be able to measure them. To develop the requisite tools is a mission of the Institute of Agroecology. Together with Agroscope we are developing a practical environmental calculator for that purpose − a digital tool that automatically calculates the individual farm-level impact of Swiss agricultural holdings on climate, biodiversity and sustainability. The project is funded by the Minerva Foundation.

Climate

The climate change mitigation module included in the calculator calculates an individual farm-level carbon footprint (greenhouse balance) for each agricultural holding. It also includes benchmarking, so as to be able to measure the farms’ performance against a defined standard. The concept, which has already been implemented successfully in the "KlimaBauer" (ClimateFarmer) project, was awarded the German Environmental Management Award of the Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUV) in November 2021.
The module is based on the calculation standard for individual farm-level carbon footprints (Berechnungsstandard für einzelbetriebliche Klimabilanzen BEK), which was developed for the German context by a consortium including KTBL, the Technical University of Munich TUM and the Lower Saxony Chamber of Agriculture. User-friendly in its application and rooted in actual practice, BEK is very well suited to small and medium-sized farms. It delivers accurate and robust results. It therefore forms an ideal basis for calculating the carbon footprint of agricultural holdings in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It does, however, require adaptations to local conditions. Improvements and optimisations in individual areas (enteric fermentation and soil organic matter balancing) are also necessary.

Biodiversity

The biodiversity module aims to allow farmers to better understand their impact on biodiversity. In order for farmers to conserve and potentially also utilise biodiversity on their holdings, they must be able to assess the impacts of their activities. Otherwise there is a risk that regulations and imposed requirements will merely be perceived as arbitrary demands issued from ivory towers. A biodiversity analysis that is practicable for farmers should use indirect, i.e. proxy parameters. The most promising approach is to survey habitats and habitat quality. A large number of studies have shown that habitat diversity correlates positively with species biodiversity.
The biodiversity calculator is designed to enable farmers to survey their farms’ biodiversity themselves, with appropriate adaptations for the given site-specific options, and to be given an assessment and feedback. This rating is user-friendly, meaningful and scalable. It mainly draws on the diversity of habitats. However, habitat quality and the agricultural practices impacting on them should also be surveyed. Ultimately, these individual indicators are to be aggregated into a simple value that allows for an assessment of the state of biodiversity.

Sustainability

Sustainability is a complex issue and open to interpretation. Defined methods and standards are needed to measure sustainability. Its successful measurement can minimise conflicting objectives, highlight the multifunctionality of agriculture and promote continuous improvement. In this context, it is important to not only consider ecological aspects of sustainability, but also aspects of economics, social well-being and good governance. The Institute of Agroecology has developed a sustainability analysis to this end. Its aim is to record and describe the above-mentioned dimensions of sustainability with the help of a questionnaire. It contains quantitative and qualitative questions that are quite easy to answer based on existing farm documentation (farm data sheet, Suisse Bilanz sheet, etc.) and thus do not require any additional surveys. At the same time, these questions should precisely reflect the reality on the farms and thus focus on the most relevant topics. Using this approach, our aim is to reduce the barrier to the use of sustainability analyses and to convince farmers of their added value.

Further Information

Contacts

Project team at the Institute of Agroecology

Judith Riedel (project leader, concept, development, communication)
Christine Flury (project collaborator)
Sonja Siegl (climate module, sustainability module, overall model, implementation)

Project team at Agroscope

Jens Leifeld (project management at Agroscope)
Daniel Bretscher (climate module)
Sonja Keel (climate module)