Including perennial crops in the Cool Farm Tool

关注可持续发展的商业和农业驱动因素，加上英国在这些领域的政策重点，导致对食品和饮料行业管理自身环境影响的需求不断增加。行业主导的方法，如ISO标准和PAS2050，已经有一段时间可用来评估供应链和产品，但在对当地变量和农场管理实践的敏感性方面，往往缺乏准确性，无法提供有关如何在农场管理这些影响的可靠信息。最近，酷农场联盟（一个总部位于英国的CIC）作为一个跨部门组织成立，旨在开发和管理一个“农民友好”的温室气体计算器，名为“酷农场工具”。它在过去受益于NERC的大量资助，因此被认为是农场门口温室气体评估的实际实用工具。将其应用于推动全球企业供应链变革的例子包括百事可乐（https://www.2degreesnetwork.com/groups/2degrees-community/resources/cutting-carbon-farm/）或更普遍的www.coolfarmtool.org。Cool Farm Tool获得了2015年牛津农业大会“实践与科学”奖，并入围了两个类别的泰晤士高等教育奖。以上证明了Cool Farm Tool对一年生大田作物和牲畜系统的适用性。然而，在凉爽农场工具中，与多年生生产系统相关的关键过程有些缺乏，特别是在生物质碳储存、多年生植物的土壤碳储存和收获后加工方面。在迄今为止的科学研究中，这些成分已被确定为决定作物生产温室气体平衡的关键因素。多年生作物系统的表示将为在Cool Farm工具中整合生物能源作物提供必要的框架。可再生能源和生物能源作为其中的一部分，对政策和工业来说越来越重要，因为它有可能支持英国和全球对低碳和安全能源的需求。因此，在CFT中增加这种系统的能力将为CFA打开新的市场，并使重要的NERC研究能够增加。近年来，有许多研究活动来进行这样的评估，其中包括由NERC资助的几项关键研究，阿伯丁大学也参与了这些研究。此外，能源领域也有几家企业专门专注于生物能源（例如Terravesta， Rokwood），生物能源是BP和壳牌等主要能源公司以及EDF， E-ON， Drax和Vattenfall等发电企业的能源组合的一部分（通过ETI； Milner等人，2015）。在这个项目中，我们将与凉爽农场联盟以及食品、饮料和生物能源行业密切合作，为凉爽农场工具添加这些必要的功能。纳入上述内容将确保对运往食品、饲料和能源市场的农业原材料的评估能够以一致的方式进行，从而实现公平的交叉比较和基准。它还将为农民和不同的工业部门提供额外的好处，以评估为终端市场（如小麦、秸秆和油菜作为生物乙醇和生物能源作为食物或饲料的替代品）和农业废物（如粪肥）服务的作物和副产品的相对效益。这一工具将帮助农民和土地所有者提高能源和投入物的使用效率，从而提高盈利能力。从项目开始，我们将建立一个跨部门工作组，以：确定生物能源领域最终用户的关键需求2。确定要采用的关键科学算法和方法。使拟议的开发“酷农场工具准备好”。这将确保该项目将nerc资助的研究转化为行业认可的产品，供相关最终用户立即使用。

Business and agricultural drivers focussing on sustainability, coupled with UK policy focus in these areas have led to the increasing demand for the food and drink sector to manage its own environmental impacts. Industry-led methods such as ISO standards and PAS2050 have been available for some time to assess supply chains and products, but frequently lack the precision regarding the sensitivity to local variables and farm management practices to yield reliable information about how such impacts can be managed on the farm. Recently, the Cool Farm Alliance (a UK based CIC) has been formed as a cross-sector organisation to develop and manage a "farmer friendly" GHG calculator called the Cool Farm Tool. It has benefitted from significant NERC funding in the past and as a result of this is recognised as the de facto practical tool for farm gate GHG assessments. Examples of its application to drive changes in the supply chains of global businesses include PepsiCo (https://www.2degreesnetwork.com/groups/2degrees-community/resources/cutting-carbon-farm/) or more generally at www.coolfarmtool.org. The Cool Farm Tool won the 2015 Oxford Farming Conference "Practice with Science" award and has been shortlisted for the Times Higher Education Awards in two categories.The above demonstrate the applicability of the Cool Farm Tool to annual field crop and livestock systems. However, key processes relating to perennial production systems in the Cool Farm Tool are somewhat lacking, in particular in biomass carbon storage, soil carbon storage in perennials, and post-harvest processing. In the scientific studies to date, these components have been identified as being critical in deciding the GHG balance of crop production. Representation of perennial cropping systems will provide the necessary framework to integrate bioenergy crops in the Cool Farm Tool. Renewable energy, and bioenergy as part of this, is topical and of increasing importance to policy and industry because of its potential to support UK and global needs for low carbon and secure energy. As such, adding capability for such systems in the CFT will open new markets for the CFA and enable the addition of significant NERC research. There have been many research activities in recent years to conduct such assessments with several key studies funded by NERC, and in which the University of Aberdeen has participated. In addition, there are also several businesses in the energy sector specifically focussed on bioenergy (e.g. Terravesta, Rokwood) and it is part of the energy portfolio of major energy companies such as BP and Shell, and electricity generators such as EDF, E-ON, Drax, and Vattenfall (via ETI; Milner et al., 2015).In this project we will work closely with the Cool Farm Alliance and food and drink and bioenergy industries to add these necessary functionalities to the Cool Farm Tool. The inclusion of the above will ensure that the assessment of agricultural raw materials destined for food, feed, and energy markets can be performed in a consistent manner to enable fair cross-comparison and benchmarking. It will have the additional benefit of serving farmers and different industry sectors in assessing the relative benefits of crops and co-products which serve both end-markets (such as wheat, straw, and oilseed rape for bioethanol and bioenergy as alternatives to food or feed) and for agricultural waste, such as manure. This tool will aid farmers and land-owners to improve energy and input use efficiency and thus improve profitability.From the start of the project, we will establish a cross-sector working group to: 1. determine the key needs of end-users in the bioenergy domain2. to identify the key science algorithms and methods to be employed3. make the proposed developments "Cool Farm Tool ready".This will ensure that the project translates NERC-funded research into an industry endorsed product for immediate use by the relevant end-users.