Savills was instructed by the Country Land & Business Association (CLA) to produce an online carbon calculator to help raise awareness amongst rural land managers of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.
Working with various sponsors, including EEDA, Natural England and Forestry Commission, the calculator, or Carbon Accounting for Land Managers (CALM) calculated the balance between annual emissions and carbon sequestration on the key GHG associated with their businesses. It aimed to educate through fact sheets, assist management planning and measure changes in practice.
CALM is an online calculator for farmers and land managers to calculate the balance between annual emissions and carbon sequestration on the key GHG associated with their businesses. It was totally free and available to everyone; it follows internationally agreed accounting guidelines for government and business to understand and manage GHG emissions. Launched in 2008 by Hilary Benn then Defra SoS, CALM was extended in a second phase to include the part played by environmental stewardship.
Using CALM helped plan savings of inputs such as fertilisers and fuel by increased efficiencies, through cultivations techniques, satellite technology and bed farming.
The project team, CLA and Savills research experts, worked on a not-for profit basis using grant funding. The calculator is currently offline but CALM was constructed to be highly flexible for easy extension and adaptation.