We Can Eat Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis

The world can’t count on carbon offsets to deliver us from the climate crisis.
As helpful as it may be for corporations to offset some of their emissions, the
greatest force for good is the everyday citizen. Specifically, it’s the
well-informed, carbon-savvy grocery shoppers who buy sustainably grown produce —
not just because they know the carbon footprint of bananas, zucchini, or beef;
but because it’s also clear which farmers are regenerating the land to support a
healthy planet.

How on earth can shoppers know? By tracking everything, everywhere, all the
time.

My time in the financial markets drew me to climate tech startups and the
importance of impact
investing.
Indicators from our planet were signaling code red. At the same time, the
increased frequency of supply chain disruptions from biodiversity
decline
and climate
change
was hitting corporate profitability.

Investment funds focused on environmental, social and governance (ESG)
commitments were ballooning; but I struggled to quantify or have visibility into
exactly which corporations, or their products, were actually “doing good.”
Quantification of the E in ESG was a real problem; and it was a
multitrillion-dollar opportunity that made sense on all levels.

Since then, I’ve been involved with various innovative companies committed to
tackling the issue head on — from carbon
removal
in supply chains to restoring biodiversity in
soils.
The latter led me to agriculture technology (AgTech) and the cutting-edge field
of the Ambient Internet of Things (IoT) — a
system of ubiquitous Bluetooth tags and cloud-based software that makes anything
traceable and intelligent.

One of my first ventures into AgTech was to leverage IoT to measure leaf
temperatures, soil conditions and root health — all key to driving sustainable
farming decisions. It gave food producers the tools to see or digitize their
risks in real-time, make improvements, and share the results with the supply
chain. But the cost to acquire the data was high, which hindered scalability.

Ambient IoT changes the whole calculus because it’s based on ultra-low-cost,
battery-free, stamp-sized computer sensors that can go anywhere and communicate
wirelessly with existing systems or off-the-shelf, standardized network devices.
Applied to food supply chains, ambient IoT allows farmers, distributors, grocers
and even regulators to know where food came from, how far it traveled, how it
was transported and stored, and what condition it’s in — and not only back when
the food was harvested, packed or put on a truck; but in real time.

Taken together, ambient IoT data — location, time-in-transit, temperature,
humidity and more — provides crucial primary data to calculate the carbon
footprint not just of the food companies involved but of every individual
product on a supermarket’s shelves. It’s a chief sustainability officer’s dream.
Armed with this information, we as citizens can be given a choice to select food
products that make the planet healthier — to do our part by eating sustainably.

Carbon visibility and trust

In a recent
study
by the Boston Consulting Group, 77 percent of consumers said they were concerned
about the sustainability of the food they buy; 63 percent said they were trying
to shop more sustainably. Their challenge? Acting on their concern.

There are a couple of reasons it’s hard for consumers to shop for sustainable
food (or for that matter, sustainable clothes, cosmetics or household supplies).
First is that they don’t always know which groceries are, in fact, sustainable.
Second is that they’re not sure who they can trust.

In stores, consumers are bombarded by signs and food labels touting “local,”
“organic” or “sustainable.” But when it comes to climate impact, such messaging
can be confusing, if not misleading. Locally grown vegetables may have been
stored in carbon-hungry refrigeration or cultivated in greenhouses that emit
more carbon than a slow boat from another continent. And those organic fruits
may have been grown with regenerative
practices
on a different continent and flown (then, driven miles) to the store. Yet each
product does, indeed, have an individual carbon footprint that can be traced.

But in the absence of product-level carbon data, consumers look to brands for
guidance, seeking those committed to “net zero” or other pledges to protect the
climate. These are laudable efforts but susceptible to what the public and
regulators have come to identify as
greenwashing
— an act of climate fraud best combatted with credible, real-time data.

Not to mention, even responsible companies can only report on their
sustainability commitments annually or quarterly — whenever a report is
finished. Even monthly reporting falls short of what should be the standard for
carbon tracing in the food chain: real-time, product-level carbon visibility.
And only the ambient IoT can achieve that.

Real-time carbon data

Consumers have become skeptical, with some justification. Recently, a Dutch
environmental foundation — in association with other food groups — reported on
the pervasiveness of
greenwashing
in the food supply chain, which experts say contributes one-third of global
emissions.

In response, regulators have taken it upon
themselves
to require producers of all kinds to prove sustainability claims through data.
The best way to do it reliably and consistently is through meaningful, real-time
metrics delivered through a credible medium.

Consumers live in a real-time world of social media feeds, fitness trackers and
generative AI. Carbon visibility should be the next killer app — not only as it
relates to what people eat but what they wear, where they vacation, and more.

Whether on people’s smartphones or via smart, digital shelf signage,
supermarkets can use ambient IoT data to deliver carbon visibility the same way
they engage shoppers in points clubs, digital coupons, and other social
media-style promotions. Yes, gamification can help save the planet when it leads
to more sustainable food consumption.

Unlocking the benefits of ambient IoT

Real-time carbon visibility is just part of the ambient IoT equation. Companies
that deploy an ambient IoT infrastructure can solve other challenges, some that
further support their climate goals and others that align the planet with
profitability.

In addition to tracking the carbon footprint of products in their supply chain,
companies can use ambient IoT data to capture missed revenues and reduce food
waste. Ambient IoT can collect environmental data on elements such as
temperature and humidity, even in stores and trucks, which determine freshness
and shelf life. And it produces data to comply with new supply chain regulations
and ensure food safety. Until now, most compliance checks have been manual,
expensive and ad hoc. Ambient IoT automates compliance and cuts costs because
now every product effectively shouts its status (i.e., sends data packets) on
the way to supermarket shelves.

But ambient IoT is capable of even more. In the long run, to combat climate
change, we must use it to restore biodiversity and put carbon back into the
ground. The food system can achieve these goals through regenerative
agriculture, which improves the health of soil and creates healthy plants and
nutrient-rich food. There is already an ecosystem of innovative solutions to
help measure the process of regenerative agriculture and accelerate its
adoption. Ambient IoT has a role in that measurement.

Ultimately, ambient IoT will help mobilize data about the land and nature’s
status. It can determine whether that next meal is traceable to a healthy,
sustainable, regenerative source. Already, major initiatives like the EU’s
regulation on deforestation-free
products
and the US government’s Food Safety Modernization
Act
will require companies to prove they know where food comes from. This is a
game-changer because it requires visibility into the flow of goods and materials
and the ability to identify who is contributing to regenerating the land.

I’m confident that when citizens are turned onto this level of visibility, we’ll
see them over-consume delicious, healthy meals. That’s how we eat our way out of
climate change.