Tech companies join forces on innovative project that could transform food and agricultural industries: 'Opportunity to take a look at what they're doing'

Sustainability tracking platform HowGood and climate technology platform Watershed recently expanded their partnership to help food and agricultural companies streamline their carbon pollution tracking. 

HowGood is home to the world's largest database of agricultural emissions factors, which assigns sustainability "scores" to over 90,000 food products based on extensive agricultural research. Meanwhile, Watershed's software enables companies to measure and report their carbon pollution and offers potential solutions to mitigate their environmental damage. 

Together, explained the HowGood release, the companies intend to combine HowGood's substantial data with Watershed's reporting software to better hold the food industry accountable for what it puts into the atmosphere.

"We don't want to see all regulations go away," Michael Streitberger, HowGood's head of partnerships, told AgFunderNews. "But it does feel as if sustainability teams have the opportunity to take a look at what they're doing in different ways, and we've been there to pivot accordingly."

In particular, the partnership aims to tackle Scope 3.1 emissions, which are planet-warming gases released indirectly and perhaps unknowingly between company supply line and consumer usage, thus often going undetected. 

Since it's understandably difficult to prevent pollution you don't realize is happening, HowGood and Watershed hope to put companies in the know by letting the metrics speak for themselves. In addition to data-backed reporting technology, per the release, the new partnership offers "targeted reduction strategies" that allow companies "to focus reduction efforts where they matter most."

According to the United States Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service, the agriculture industry contributed over 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas pollution, or over 740 million tons, in 2021. 

Excessive carbon dioxide buildup in our atmosphere traps heat on our planet, bringing about rising global temperatures that intensify extreme weather events, threaten our food supply, and lead to myriad health concerns. 

With fewer cattle and stricter fertilizer regulations, agricultural pollution may already be starting to decline, based on greenhouse gas emissions data from the Environmental Protection Agency. The partnership between HowGood and Watershed will only facilitate the industry's slow turn toward sustainability, promoting data-backed carbon accountability for food companies everywhere. 

"We're seeing more companies approach us with a mandate to get more accurate with Scope 3 reporting," Streitberger continued to AgFunderNews. He went on to describe the budding partnership as "a really seamless experience where it truly feels like one solution, one interface."

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