By now it is known that food production is responsible for (at least) the 15-20% of annual greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere and reducing this value is decidedly one of the main objectives for combating climate change.
It is so true that for some time the European Union has been insisting that the member countries adopt a common labeling system (called PEF) that allows consumers to evaluate how polluting the food they are about to buy and also reward the most environmentally friendly companies.
In Francesuch a system should enter into force by the end of 2023 under the name of Eco-Scoreand just from France comes a startup whose purpose is precisely to help producers better understand the environmental impact of what they do.
Four million euros to start
The startup is called Carbon Mapswas founded by Patrick Asdaghi, Jeremiah Wainstain ed Estelle Huynh and has just raised €4 million in funding from Breega and Samaipata, two well-known European venture capital firms.
What they have done is to develop a software platform which, using mathematical models combined withartificial intelligence, carries out an assessment of the impact of various consumer products. Warning: not (only) of the finished product, but of all the individual aspects that concern it, from ingredients to raw materials, from the use of water to soil consumption, to animal welfare. The idea is to monitor all steps in the supply chain, so as to allow companies to understand where there is (possibly) a problem and correct it.
The Carbon Maps platform scores steps based on “scientifically validated standards and models,” such as the GHG protocols, ISO 14040 and 14044, and IPCC. A simple example to understand what they do is meat: the same quantity can have a different environmental weight depending on whether the animal from which it derives has been fed (for example) with grass and hay or with soy grown intensively in Brazil . It is still meat, but it pollutes in a different way.
Eyes on Italy
After closing the funding round, Asdaghi, who is both the co-founder and current CEO of Carbon Maps, underlined that “our ambition is to become the leading environmental accounting platform that brings together all the players in the food chain, enabling them to assess the climate impact of products so that we can reduce it sustainably”.
Furthermore, he hinted that Italy is the second country they intend to focus on (after France, where they are already working with a couple of companies): “It is a key market, because it is the second agricultural market in Europe together with Germany, is home to some of the best food brands in the world and has a strong culture of local and sustainable production – he said – We are working to secure strong partnerships in the food sector in Italy, to equip industries with our platform and help them evaluate and better manage climate impact reduction procedures, even in the countries to which they export”.
In general, the funding will serve precisely this: to grow and expand, hiring 15 people and expanding to other areas of the EU.