CFT General
According to the GHG Protocol, which approach (scope 1,2 or 3) does the Cool Farm Tool take?
The Cool Farm Tool functions as a greenhouse gas (GHG) calculator designed specifically for the farm level, focusing on emissions arising from agricultural production of specific products, whether they are crops or livestock. The GHG Protocol ...
Can I contribute new methods or emission factors to the Cool Farm Tool?
The Cool Farm Alliance welcomes discussions on enhancing the existing methodology within the Cool Farm Tool. The foundation of the Cool Farm Tool relies entirely on peer-reviewed empirical research, drawing from a diverse array of published data sets ...
I want to transfer assessments made by former colleagues to a different account. Is this possible?
Unfortunately it is currently not possible yet to transfer assessments in between accounts. This is an improvement planned for the new Cool Farm Platform. However, the Cool Farm Team can reassign existing accounts and its evaluations to new email ...
The IPCC Climate Zone Map doesn't have any geocoordinates. Is there a more precise way of selecting my climate zone?
The IPCC map is indeed very pixelated and without geolocations. There isn't another map that draws the lines between zones clearer or lets you choose the geolocation. If you are uncertain as your location is on the border of two zones, always pick ...
I haven't received an activation email or "forgotten my password" email, what shall I do?
First check spam and junk folders of your email account. If you are still unable to locate the activation email or "forgotten your password" email, please email support@coolfarmtool.org providing the email address you have used to register for a Cool ...
What sorts of claims can I make on the basis of my CFT results?
The Cool Farm Tool is intended to help farmers choose management options that improve their environmental performance and to track and measure improvement over time. Results can be used as part of companies SBTi reporting commitments. For consumer ...
Do you have benchmark data in different regions so I can compare my results?
Not yet. We recognise how valuable this would be and are collecting the data necessary to provide this. We need to ensure we have sufficient good quality data before building this into the tool and are setting up a data ethics framework to also ...
How long does it take to complete a greenhouse gas assessment with the CFT?
It takes about 15-30 minutes to get a rough estimate of your carbon footprint by entering information off the top of your head. To refine this estimate using information from farm records can take a few hours, as you will need to make sure you ...
Which IPCC tiers does the CFT incorporate? Do you consider the global warming potential from the IPCC assessment report 4, 5 or 6?
After our update to CFT 1.0 in February 2022, we are using the Global Warming Potentials for methane and nitrous oxide from the IPCC Assessment Report 6. The CFT crop and cattle pathways are aligned with IPCC 2019, and the cattle pathways are aligned ...
Is the CFT compliant with standards such as the WRI GHG Protocol ISO, PAS2050, Carbon Trust, Life cycle analysis, the International Dairy Federation etc?
The Cool Farm Alliance seeks to be consistent with various standards and protocols in terms of scope and boundaries. However, it does not seek to be necessarily ‘compliant’ to those standards, as they are in some areas conflicting or encompass a much ...
Do I need to create different accounts for different countries?
The tool is set up to represent one specific farm and its related location and climate. CFA members can enable a feature that allows to create multiple farms in one account so you can easily switch between them and have assessments in one place. If ...
Can I copy an existing assessment when most of the data is identical to another farm/year?
Yes, you can copy the data of an existing assessment by clicking on “save as” at the end of any tab of the assessments’ pathway. This allows you to save the whole assessment under a new name and change the data as needed. This provides you with the ...
Is there a way to change inputs to local units, such as manzanas?
No, unfortunately we cannot include all local units, but most of the standard unit conversions applicable to different continents are included.
Who pays for the CFT?
The Cool Farm Tool is free for farmers who have 5 free assessments they can change and adjust to evaluate their products. Organisations that use the Tool for their business activities become Cool Farm Alliance members and pay to help build literacy ...
Can I assess GHG emissions for a whole farm?
The greenhouse gas metric works on a per-product basis, whereas in contrast the biodiversity metric is for whole-farm. A whole-farm assessment is a GHG emission inventory considering all aspects that may influence the overall footprint of a ...
Which products and regions are covered by the CFT?
The Cool Farm Tool covers virtually all crops grown in mineral soils (which are primarily composed of inorganic material formed from the weathering of rocks) and livestock globally. You can make GHG assessments for these products, and for crops you ...
I have finished my assessment. What's next?
You can duplicate an assessment via the “save as” button in the pathway, change certain values and use the compare function in the results tab to create “what-if” scenarios that shows how your GHG footprint can be improved by implementing more ...
Can I share data and create aggregated reports of multiple assessments?
Data aggregation is handled through “share codes”, which is a feature exclusively available for members and paying project users (depending on project agreement). Cool Farm Alliance members (and project users if agreed) can have one or more share ...
How does Cool Farm Alliance assist companies identify and integrate their sustainability goals into their operations, or is it more on-farm oriented?
Identification and integration of sustainability goals into operations is not something we have resources to support, however, we connect our members pre-competitively for best practice sharing. The CFA is a community of agri-food companies, ...
Can Cool Farm Alliance offer certification for the carbon assessment and emissions reduction process, which could add credibility and recognition to our companies sustainability efforts?
As Cool Farm Alliance we are not involved in the creation of carbon certificates or any other certification. The CFT is a model for quantifying emissions, not measuring emissions. The reason the CFT was created was to be able to model emissions to ...
I've forgotten my password, what shall I do?
If you have previously registered an account in the Cool Farm Tool but forgotten your password, you can simply go to https://app.coolfarmtool.org/, and click on “forgot password”. Follow the instructions you receive via mail (check your Junk & Spam ...