We are mapping our CO₂e using the UK Government GHG conversion factors for company reporting. Here's a link for a deeper look at that document. 

Following government guidelines our activity is divided into Scopes 1-3. We've included the conversion factors where relevant, alongside our tracking rationale.

Scope 1

Last mile delivery, from the market to our hub, and from our hub to our customers, is currently the only scope 1 activity we need to account for. We calculate emissions based on: 

• Recorded mileage
• Vehicle fuel efficiency (mpg)
• DEFRA diesel conversion factors as below

 

 

Scope 2

We currently only have our electricity usage sitting in Scope 2.

We operate out of a shared business site with our electricity being provided by our landlord, Hoults Ltd. As we have the renewable electricity certificate that guarantees 100% renewable electricity is used on the site at all times we are recording our usage as 0 kg CO₂e. View the 2025 - 2026 Renewable Electricity Certificate.

Scope 3

Scope 3 is the big one. For us it includes our water usage, waste, and the freight of our fruit from the country of origin to the market. 

As far as our water usage is concerned, we operate out of a shared use building with access to a kitchen and toilet, so identifying exact numbers for our water usage is not currently possible. We have added it here just to acknowledge it is part of the picture. 

With regard to our waste, we currently also share waste management services with other businesses on our site.

We internally track our own waste categories, amount, and method of disposal, but we’ve had to make assumptions about the end of life of some items based on how we understand Veolia manages waste, in order to estimate our CO2e output. We’ve made our assumptions based on information available to us from our site manager and the Veolia website.

We donate any slightly spoiled fruits to Ouseburn Farm Charity Ltd. There is no conversion factor for ‘eaten by goats’ as far as we know, but we are still noting this waste in our trackers and dashboard for transparency. The conversion factors we use to calculate the emissions on the rest of our waste are below.

 

Scope 3	Conversion Factor
Food waste Incineration with energy recovery	Tonnes x 4.68568 (kg CO₂e)
Composting	Tonnes x 8.98311 (kg CO₂e)
Farm donation	n/a
Cardboard and paper Closed loop / incineration with energy recovery	Tonnes x 4.68568 (kg CO₂e)
Plastics PET (Fruit punnets, hard plastic)	Tonnes x 4.68568 (kg CO₂e)
PP (fruit protective pockets, soft plastic)	Tonnes x 4.68568 (kg CO₂e)
HDPE (grape wrapping film, soft plastic)	Tonnes x 4.68568 (kg CO₂e)
PE (Polythene banana wrap, soft plastic)	Tonnes x 4.68568 (kg CO₂e)

Freight is the final and most complex contributor to our Scope 3 emissions. 

We calculate upstream carbon emissions from freight using a consistent, distance-based method. For each product this calculation includes:

• Recording the country of origin
• Assigning a fixed proxy city
• Calculating the distance to our market 
• Applying DEFRA emission factors for the freight method/s used (kg CO₂e per tonne-km)
• Multiplying by the weight of fruit purchased

Because we do not always have the exact farm location, we assign a standard proxy city for each country we purchase from. The same proxy city is used every time to ensure consistency and fair year-on-year comparison.

You can take a look at the DEFRA emission conversion factors we use in our calculations below.

 

Scope 3	Conversion Factor
Sea	Tonnes x 0.01612 (kg CO₂e)
Road (EU)	Tonnes x 0.10163 (kg CO₂e)
Road (UK)	Tonnes x 0.10163 (kg CO₂e)

 

What Is Not Included

While all of the data we are collecting here about the Co2e impact of our business is incredibly useful, we believe that to acknowledge the true cost of our service in GHG emissions we also have to consider pre-freight processes, including things like:

• Growing and farming emissions
• Overseas cold storage before export
• Supplier-level packaging emissions

Getting to that information is the next challenge! Is it even possible from our vantage point? We'll just have to give it our best shot - you coming along?