Sustainable agriculture hub

We are committed to supporting Britain’s farmers to transition to sustainable business models and operations, and to pursue new clean growth opportunities.

We recognise that climate change is one of the most significant challenges facing the UK today, and that the agriculture sector has a significant role to play in the fight against it.

Net zero by 2040

The UK Government has set an ambition to be net zero by 2050, with the National Farmers Union (NFU) setting the agriculture sector an even more ambitious goal of transitioning to net zero by 2040.

This means achieving an overall balance between reducing greenhouse gas emissions produced and increasing carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere through sequestration.

Supporting your transition

Our expert resources include a dedicated product that offers fee-free lending for clear, specific sustainable projects and purchases, a comprehensive report with practical steps to support your transition, sector factsheets, technical notes, webinars, and links to carbon calculators designed specifically for farmers.

Clean Growth Financing Initiative

The Clean Growth Financing Initiative (CGFI) exists to provide fee-free lending for clear, specific sustainable projects and purchases. Its aim is to help British agriculture reduce its environmental impact across several project areas including water, waste, energy usage, and carbon/greenhouse gas emissions.

If you are thinking about investing in your farm, CGFI could include loans to enable renewable energy, waste and water improvements, agricultural machinery, sustainable diversification, and much more.

Clean Growth Financing Initiative

Shaping agriculture’s transition to a net zero future

We have updated our report outlining the critical recommendations to the agriculture sector as part of their transition to a net zero future, which are supported by a range of bodies such as the Committee on Climate Change and the NFU.

The report covers:

What climate change is and why it matters.
What is net zero and why agriculture?
What actions your sector can take.
How AMC can help.

View report (PDF, 3.04MB)

Soil Association Exchange

Soil Association Exchange is a free online platform that helps farmers and landowners holistically measure their farms environmental impact. Built with the input of hundreds of farmers, it can offer recommendations to boost your farm’s sustainability credentials and unlock the financial benefits that brings.

How Exchange can help you

Sector factsheets

Learn about sector challenges and short and long term solutions to reduce emissions.

Arable

Arable factsheet (PDF, 743KB)

Dairy

Dairy factsheet (PDF, 704KB)

Horticulture

Horticulture factsheet (PDF, 766KB)

Livestock

Livestock factsheet (PDF, 955KB)

Pigs and poultry

Pigs factsheet (PDF, 611KB)

Poultry

Poultry factsheet (PDF, 651KB)

Renewable Energy

Many farm businesses are considering investing in renewable energy. Read our factsheet to find out more about the latest developments in renewables.

Read about Renewable Energy (PDF, 785KB)

Technical factsheets

Deforestation

Read factsheet (PDF, 2.08MB)

Biodiversity

Read factsheet (PDF, 677KB)

Crisis in feed, fuel and fertiliser

Read factsheet (PDF, 633KB)

Policy drivers

Read factsheet (PDF, 370KB)

Regenerative

Read factsheet (PDF, 629KB)

Carbon Calculators

Every farm will start the journey to net zero from a different place and will need a unique action plan to achieve emission reductions. As a starting point, we recommend that farms take stock of their carbon footprint by completing an assessment using a carbon calculator.

Introduction to market leading tools

There are a number of options for carbon calculators, and while each of the carbon calculators are self-serve, we are happy to make introductions to the tool of your choice if that would be helpful.

The Farm Carbon Toolkit calculator is free for farmers and gives a numerical and visual estimate of the greenhouse gas emissions across all farming enterprises (using current internationally agreed emission factors) and shows how they might improve with any proposed changes to that farming system. It also uniquely provides an estimate of the amount of carbon sequestration that a farm is achieving.

Find out more:

Email: info@farmcarbontoolkit.org.uk

Visit: www.farmcarbontoolkit.org.uk

Agrecalc is free for measurement of your annual footprint and more detailed benchmarking and scenarios start at £85 a year. Agrecalc is a carbon footprint tool designed to identify the level and sources of greenhouse gas emissions by farm, enterprise and product. It allows improvements to be monitored and can help benchmark key performance indicators using an extensive farm database.

Find out more:

Email: info@agrecalc.com

Visit: www.agrecalc.com

The Cool Farm Tool is an easy to use online tool that is free for farmers and enables them to measure and understand the carbon footprint of arable, perennial and livestock products. It allows them to take action on the biggest emission hotspots, to implement practices that can sequester carbon or reduce their environmental impact. It includes environmental metrics for greenhouse gases (GHGs), water, biodiversity and waste and is used across global supply chains.

Find out more:

Email: info@coolfarmtool.org

Visit: www.coolfarmtool.org

Plant Trees on Your Farm

We are helping to fund the Woodland Trust’s MOREwoods and MOREhedges schemes to help landowners plant trees and hedgerows as part of your farm’s transition to a low/zero carbon future.