A heavily requested item the Global Feed LCA Institute is reached out for is the inclusion of company branded products into the database. Through this inclusion, a product can be verified for its carbon footprint and other emissions related to its production, which would allow for product distinction. Through a standardized method and data verification, the key element to achieve is a high primary quality of the data. This would reduce the chance of unfair marketing ‘greenwashing’ claims. Having your data is branded data allows for comparison with an average of a similar products or other branded products.
Branded data is defined as,
‘’Lifecycle inventory/impact assessment (LCI/A) data for a feed ingredient marketed under a certain brand and owned by a company or other entity’’.
The current uptake of GFLI data includes regional or sectoral averages with use of some secondary data (based on statistics) due to more lenient requirements in the type of GFLI project and scope. Branded data differentiates from the data currently available in the GFLI database with the principle of it primarily using data sourced directly under the control of the data-in provider, referring to the manufacturing process of the data-in provider (cultivation, processing, production of given ingredient). This is required for transparency and reducing the possibility to calibrate more favourable results by the use of (improved) secondary data.
Pilot phase
The Technical Management Committee (TMC) and GFLI Secretariat have invested significant time in developing a rigorous methodology for collecting branded data in a standardized and transparent manner, which at this phase is tested to achieve consistently robust datasets. Please note that this pilot phase may result in an altered final methodology or the omittance of branded data once finalized if the desired results are not met.
The following ingredient types are currently included into the criteria: cultivated feed ingredients, processed plant based products, processed animal based products, fish and fish based feeds, co-products and manufactured products (e.g., feed additives).
Costs
Data-in providers may participate in the pilot phase free of charge, but note there are costs attached to the data collection, external review, and data implementation. Please take into account that data collection may bear additional costs when the branded data methodology changes and re-collection of data is needed. The data-in provider should have its own LCA expert or hired external consultancy for data collection and alignment to the GFLI branded data methodology. Also note that an external review is required for the eventual uptake in the GFLI database of which the costs are not facilitated by the GFLI.
Interested to learn more about the pilot? Reach out to [email protected]