Sustainability data at farm level will soon be provided to schools and hospitals in a first for UK public procurement.
Soil Association Exchange is set to deliver environmental measures for farms in public sector purchasing as part of the Crown Commercial Service’s (CCS) Buying Better Food and Drink agreement, available for UK public sector organisations to use for buying food and drink through a single online access point.
Provided by Entegra, a Sodexo company, and expert in procurement solutions, and using AgileChain technology by Equilibrium Markets following a tender process in 2023.
As well as a shift to more dynamic food procurement – which removes barriers to allow small producers to contribute to larger public sector orders – the updated service will also use Exchange’s holistic farm assessments for sustainability.
Exchange measures the environmental impact of farm operations by assessing six key areas – soil, water, carbon, animal welfare, social impacts, and biodiversity. It does this by collecting data through on the ground farm surveys, satellite imagery and other datasets on metrics like soil carbon and bird counts, alongside considering the food production and community benefits a farm provides.
Soil Association Exchange Chief Executive, Joseph Gridley, explained: “It is hugely important for our public institutions to serve food that supports sustainable, British farm businesses and we are excited to start delivering data that will help to make this easier. Exchange is already working with hundreds of farms who have helped to develop our wide-ranging sustainability metrics.
“These measurements consider the full picture and can help to show schools and hospitals all of the brilliant things that farmers are doing to support nature while producing good quality food. With our farm level sustainability data and new technology from Equilibrium Markets designed with small businesses in mind, we hope we will soon see a much wider variety of producers accessing this important market.”
