Bayer, Bushel, and Amazon Web Services launch digital carbon footprint measurement solution

Bayer, Bushel, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are launching Project Carbonview.

Conceptualized by Bayer Crop Science and developed in collaboration with Bushel and AWS, Project Carbonview is a first-of-its-kind technology solution, say company officials. They add that it will help U.S farmers drive more sustainable supply chains and mitigate the impact agriculture has on the environment by aggregating the carbon footprint of end products.

Company officials say Project Carbonview is the latest example of Bayer's focus on connecting the farmer more deeply into the value chain to better capture their carbon contribution and drive the entire value chain to net-zero carbon emissions. Through this solution, farmers are empowered to connect to more sustainable supply chains that benefit their farming operations while minimizing carbon emissions, say company officials.

Beginning as a pilot program, Project Carbonview focuses on creating awareness and acceptance for low-carbon fuel markets. Eligible farmers who enroll in the pilot will receive compensation for participation. Ultimately, once these markets are broadly established, Bayer officials anticipate growers will be compensated based on the implementation of sustainable farming practices and will share in the financial incentives created by low-carbon fuel markets.

Project Carbonview's focus on the United States will initially enable U.S. ethanol producers (corn is a key ingredient in ethanol production) to track carbon emissions across the entire supply chain – from planting through production – and implement more sustainable business practices by providing the data needed to make more informed purchasing decisions and reduce their carbon emissions.

For farmers who opt into the program, Project Carbonview streamlines on-farm data collection with Bayer's Climare FieldView application and connects it with delivery and transportation data captured from the 54,000 U.S. active users of Bushel's platform. Through Climate FieldView, farmers continue to own their data and choose who to share their data with.

Project Carbonview, which is built on AWS, allows permissioned access to on-demand product transaction and crop exchange market data from the ethanol production facilities through the Bushel platform to evaluate the carbon impact of sourcing and purchasing decisions. "We are very excited to launch a solution to help transform the food and agriculture value chain by paving the way for a more resilient, regenerative, and net-zero carbon future," said Leo Bastos, global commercial ecosystems lead, Bayer Crop Science, in a news release.

"While FieldView helps farmers make more informed decisions on their own operations, Project Carbonview will make it possible for them to drive sustainability improvements across the entire value chain. The integration of our leading digital and data science under Project Carbonview will give farmers greater choice and resources to be compensated for more productive and sustainable decisions on-farm."

As part of a recent pilot, Project Carbonview identified opportunities to optimize supply chain partners to reduce Scope 3 – or downstream supply chain – emissions in a single year, say Bayer officials. For farmers, Project Carbonview provides another option for them to participate in and capture value from these evolving markets. This new solution marks the latest development by Bayer. The company is working to build a portfolio of farmer-facing programs to complement its existing Bayer Carbon Initiative, a program which incentivizes the adoption of climate-smart practices, creating new revenue streams for growers who use technology to keep carbon in the soil – and out of the atmosphere.

"Project Carbonview gives grain buyers and producers visibility into the carbon impact of production so they can evaluate the impact of different agronomic practices, make sustainability improvements, and help their customers make better purchasing decisions," said Elizabeth Fastiggi, AWS head of worldwide business development for agriculture, in a news release. "We supported Bayer by working backwards from their vision, to ensure Project Carbonview has the potential to be successfully adopted at scale within the current business operations of producers."

"Project Carbonview makes it easy for producers and processors to share information. Through our relationship with Bayer and support of AWS, we can empower and incentivize sustainable behavior across the agricultural value chain and build a scalable digital solution that can be deployed anywhere," said Jake Joraanstad, co-founder and CEO of Bushel, in a news release.

The team behind Project Carbonview is piloting the solution with U.S. corn producers during the 2022 season and plans to expand the program in the future to other global regions and other feed grains, food grains, and oilseeds such as soybeans. Within the pilot, the team is exploring how Project Carbonview can assist ethanol producers to capture the impact of corn production within their emissions reporting, as well as opportunities for users to share best practices for achieving emissions benchmarks within a dedicated community, say company officials.