During the IFTF, Greenhouse Marketeers (now Greenhouse Sustainability) presented the first portals of the Flori Footprint Tool . The software has been developed to help floricultural companies to quickly calculate the footprint of products themselves.
The most recent public discussion about how polluting the floriculture industry is, makes the value of knowing your footprint even more clear. Nothing answers this better than a footprint calculation. Recent consumer research by Kantar has shown that a lack of concrete information such as a footprint is an argument not to buy a sustainable product. Calculating a Product Footprint is therefore also valuable for the consumer. Not to mention the increasing legislation and regulations, such as the CSRD from the EU. This obliges large companies to also map out the environmental impact of purchased products, such as flowers and plants. A footprint also helps you make the right choices when investing in sustainability. So there is work to be done.
The most common objections not to start with a (product) footprint calculation are; complexity, cost and lack of time. Companies that have already started indicate; 'We are so glad that we have already mapped out our environmental impact, which helps us to give direction and make targeted choices'.
Each chain party calculate the footprint itself
To remove the objections and make a footprint accessible to everyone, Greenhouse Sustainability has developed the Flori Footprint Tool in collaboration with their LCA software partner SimaPro. The Flori Footprint Tool is an online software solution that makes it possible to calculate the product footprint for each party in the floriculture chain. A separate portal is being developed for each type of link in the chain. The portal for grower and trader are now available.
In the software, the grower can easily process the necessary data step by step and calculate the footprint of as many products as desired. Traders can collect the footprints of the growers and apply their own processes to them. Both parties can of course also create scenarios to see what an investment or other method does with the environmental impact of the flowers and plants.
Calculation method FloriPEFCR
The calculation method on which this software is based is the Flori Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (FloriPEFCR). This calculation standard is now for approval at the European Union and is expected to be approved in the end of 2023.
Pilot
After the LCA specialists of Greenhouse Sustainability completed a study for Wageningen University & Research with the FloriPEFCR method in early 2022, the development of the Flori Footprint Tool speeded up. A successful pilot with a group of orchid growers and positive feedback from various exporters gave Greenhouse Sustainability and SimaPro the confidence that action could be taken quickly.
Would you like to know what the Flori Footprint Tool can do for you? Go to www.florifootprinttool.com and request a demo.
