AWS Executive Insights / Conversations / ...
Collaborating Across the Supply Chain
Reducing emissions to drive carbon reduction and empower market choice
Bayer | Bushel | AWS
Increasingly, regulators and customers want to know the total greenhouse gas emissions associated with a product. One component of those emissions is from assets a producer does not own or control but are generated in its value chain. These emissions are referred to as “Scope 3,” and are inherently difficult to measure. But in December 2021, Bayer, Bushel, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) unveiled a tool that will enable U.S. ethanol producers, who produce fuel from corn, to measure to measure and report the end-to-end carbon footprints of their supply chains.
Consumers are requiring more sustainable products, while regulators and governments are demanding more sustainable practices. Although companies that produce fuel or food from corn can measure and monitor the greenhouse gasses they emit, they have limited visibility around Scope 3 (production, harvesting, transportation) emissions of the corn before it arrives at their manufacturing facility. Farmers can reduce these emissions with sustainable practices like no-till, cover crops, crop rotation, precise fertilization, sustainable transportation, shipping shorter distances, and sequestering carbon in the soil. But the impact of these sustainable practices has been difficult for farmers to measure and report. And their customer, a manufacturer of foodstuffs or ethanol, has had no way to gauge the sustainability of their feedstocks. Neither could they demonstrate that value to their customers; for instance, a consumer buying a box of breakfast cereal.
Project Carbonview
In 2021, the Crop Science Division of Bayer conceptualized how to use carbon data from farms to signal the value of sustainable practices downstream through the supply chain. Bayer collaborated with Bushel, an ag-tech company, and AWS to turn the concept into a solution.
Project Carbonview will enable U.S. ethanol producers to track carbon emissions along their entire supply chain, from the planting of corn through production. It will give them the data they need to make more informed purchasing decisions and reduce their carbon emissions. Project Carbonview streamlines on-farm data collection with Bayer’s FieldView app and connects it with delivery and transportation data from 54,000 active users of Bushel’s agriculture IT platform. By aggregating this data into the carbon footprint of end-products for the first time, Project Carbonview empowers farmers to attain more sustainable supply chains and mitigate the impact of agriculture on the environment.
Project Carbonview in Numbers
10
The team ran a ten-week process to build a proof of concept
Scope 3
The goal is to reduce Scope 3 emissions
54,000
Connects with data from more than 54,000 active users
2022
The Carbonview project will be piloted during the 2022 season
Working Backwards
In April 2021, Bayer and Bushel approached AWS with a concept to make carbon data collected at the farm-level available to downstream members of the supply chain to signal regulatory compliance and sustainable sourcing and business practices.
Bayer, Bushel, and AWS used Amazon’s Working Backward innovation process to create a solution that could give ethanol producers a comprehensive view of the carbon “carried” by an agricultural product, corn, as it moves through the supply chain.
The process started with the group identifying a specific customer, the procurement team at a U.S. ethanol producer, and imaging a solution and experience that they would love. Then the AWS Digital Innovation team, with Bayer and Bushel leaders, used that vision to create a mock press release, FAQs, and visuals that described the future solution and how it would be experienced by the customer.
Farmers can help fight climate change by minimizing emissions in their downstream supply chains. Carbonview helps farmers identify opportunities to optimize their supply chains to reduce Scope 3 emissions from the first year.
Project Carbonview
The team ran a ten-week process to build a proof of concept that could deliver the promise of the press release. In parallel, Bayer, Bushel, and AWS secured ethanol producers to participate as initial customers and provide feedback on the solution.
Project Carbonview was announced in December 2021. The solution will enable U.S. ethanol producers to track carbon emissions along their entire supply chain, from the moment the corn is planted". Bayer identifies the carbon footprint of each field, which spans a much broader period of time and is not distinguished with a starting point (such as when the seeds are planted).
The press release, created as part of the Working Backwards process, focused the whole project on an outcome that everybody had agreed to. Then, as complexities and challenges inevitably arose, it served as a constant reminder of the overall objective—something the customer wanted—and helped the team stay focused. It was also an effective means of sharing the Project Carbonview vision with stakeholders and customers who participated in the pilot.
Cultivating Emissions Reductions
Farmers can help fight climate change by minimizing emissions in their downstream supply chains. Carbonview helps farmers identify opportunities to modify their production, harvesting, and transportation practices to reduce Scope 3 emissions from the first year of implementation. It connects ethanol producers with farmers that produce sustainably. And it helps farmers, grain companies, ethanol producers, and food manufacturers understand their supply chains and serve their customers better.
Carbonview will be piloted with U.S. corn producers during the 2022 season. It will help ethanol producers report the emissions contributions of the corn they buy.
Enabling sustainability solutions
AWS is helping customers across all sectors implement sustainability measures in their operations.
Take the next step
Listen and Learn
Listen to executive leaders and AWS Enterprise Strategists, all former C-Suite, discuss their digital transformation journeys.
Stay Connected
AWS Executive Connection is a digital destination for business and technology leaders where we share information.
Watch on Demand
Get insights from peers and discover new ways to power your digital transformation journey through this exclusive international network.
Get Inspired
Listen in as AWS and customer leaders discuss best practices, lessons, and transformative thinking.