Behind the data
Learn how we assess the accuracy of the different datasources within our app.
When creating the Reewild app, one of the challenges we faced was ensuring the availability and accuracy of food carbon footprint data, to inform and not mislead users. To that end, we've developed a transparency scale to disclose the sources of our data, the variation in accuracy, and how our methodology serves as a feedback loop to improve accuracy as we scale. We follow a "good over perfect" principle, which acknowledges the limitation of existing data, but strives to provide consumers with the most comprehensive database of carbon-scored products on the market.
Today, our app acts as a central repository that pulls together all available carbon data on food and drink products into one accessible, aggregated database. Where data on certain food products has yet to be made available, we have carried out estimated carbon scoring, underpinned by thousands of life cycle assessment studies. This approach provides our users with a uniquely comprehensive dataset, helping them to understand and compare the impact of any product on the market.
Data Accuracy
As a climate transparency platform, we encourage brands to conduct accurate carbon calculations through our best-in-class carbon accounting partners and invite them to join our climate transparent community.
The carbon accounting calculators we work with all use similar methodologies and follow the standards set out by ISO14040 and GHG Protocol. In most cases, the carbon scores are calculated using a combination of primary and secondary data.
The products for which we have estimated the carbon scores are clearly sign-posted as being ‘Moderate Accuracy’ and deprioritised compared to products with higher accuracy. This also serves to challenge and incentivise more brands to disclose their specific climate impact.
As more brands conduct primary LCAs, consumers are given a more accurate picture of food product carbon footprints. This also creates a collaborative circle of data collection, providing greater insight into different supply chains and life cycles. Collecting more primary data creates a positive loop that feeds into the bottom end of carbon emissions data, making general estimations at the lower end more and more accurate. This loop results in more cost-effective ways for businesses to calculate more accurate scores, while also providing consumers with better insights into how to reduce their carbon footprint. This feedback loop will only continue to improve the accuracy of scores at all levels, consistently providing us with better carbon data to take more targeted action to reduce the food industry’s environmental impact.
Moderate accuracy scores are given to products and recipes that are carbon-scored in real-time using the Reewild Foodprint Calculator - our proprietary calculation and matching system. To do so, we leverage the power of generative AI to assign carbon footprint values to each supermarket product and ingredient, drawing mainly from two open-source databases: ADEME’s Agribalyse (The French Government Agency for Ecological Transition), and Poore & Nemecek’s 2018 carbon emissions study of the most commonly produced food sources. Both these studies are among the most accurate amalgamations of food and drink life cycle assessment data available. For recipes, an overall carbon score is calculated by adding the carbon values of the ingredients. Based on the high quality of available data and the matching accuracy of the Foodprint Calculator, all products and recipes are of Moderate Accuracy or higher.
Medium accuracy scores are attributed to products and recipes that have undergone a “cradle-to-shelf” Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). This study only takes into account a product's carbon emissions up until the point of sale. To harmonise the data within our app, and ensure comparability between products, we have estimated the emissions associated with its final stages, including its consumption and disposal. The accuracy of the score is therefore diminished. These products are, however, produced by responsible brands who have decided to be transparent about their carbon emissions.
LCAs can be conducted along different lengths of a recipe or a product's supply chain, with the two most common being cradle-to-shelf and cradle-to-grave. Products with high accuracy scores are backed by data collected and assessed through a cradle-to-grave LCA. These scores take into account a product's entire lifecycle, including its farming, processing, transport, packaging, retail, consumption, and disposal. These products are sold by brands who are committed to full climate transparency.
These are the most accurate scores in our database, as the products have undergone a rigorous bespoke LCA. This is the gold standard of carbon footprinting. These brands have committed to collecting primary data, through a detailed analysis of each product’s unique lifecycle and supply chains. Products in this category use a methodology that is aligned with the European Commission’s Product Environmental Footprint (PEF).
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