Aligning for impact: Collaborative climate solutions for agri-food regions

As climate risks intensify and regulatory pressures mount, companies across the agri-food sector are recognising the urgent need to move from individual sustainability efforts to coordinated, landscape-level action.  

In recent months, IDH has been exchanging with our partners in a series of consultations and events to combine practical recommendations on how companies and governments can move towards greater climate resilience: a collaborative approach to decarbonisation and climate resilience across sourcing sheds in key agri-food commodities. This marks a pivotal shift in how businesses can work together to transform supply chains and deliver measurable impact at scale.

The concept is that by using a large-scale landscape approach, sharing risks and costs, businesses can reduce MRV (Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification) costs, mitigate free-rider risks, work within an agreed set of reporting and claiming rules established between parties and relevant authorities, and work at scale on decarbonisation and climate resilience. 

Companies must mainstream sustainability across every part of the value chain. Not as a cost centre, but as a foundation for long-term security, compliance, and growth. Industry leaders reaffirmed this at London Climate Action Week and more recently during New York Climate Week, highlighting several key insights that now shape how the sector approaches collective climate action. 

They emphasised the importance of distinguishing between competitive and pre-competitive elements to unlock shared business investment and purchasing power, and of designing for scale from the outset, even when starting with smaller proof-of-concept efforts. Leading companies are keeping farmers at the centre of their strategies, linking climate action to improved livelihoods and income growth, while working to streamline measurement systems and reduce the complexity and cost of overlapping standards.  

There is growing attention to data governance, defining what must be shared for transparency and accountability, and what can remain proprietary.  There is a need to broadening the impact of regenerative approaches to include biodiversity and water outcomes. Partnerships with data innovators, such as the Cornell Lab’s AI-enhanced Merlin Bird app, are helping track ecological health, while insurance and blended finance mechanisms are enabling farmers to invest in their land with greater confidence.  

Philanthropic capital is also being leveraged to crowd in private investment, accelerating progress across value chains. And while securing supply remains the primary driver for many companies, there is a shared understanding that this work must be commercially viable, based on the value created or protected across the value chain — not dependent on product premiums.

In practice, this requires:  

• Collective action in sourcing regions – scaling regenerative agriculture, protecting forests, restoring ecosystems.  

• Alignment across the value chain – harmonising MRV mechanisms, ensuring traceability and transparency, co-claiming verified impacts, and transforming procurement incentives.  

• Co-investment and shared risk – ensuring a viable and attractive regenerative agriculture business case for producers and building blended finance and benefit-sharing mechanisms to expedite adoption by producers at scale.  

The Opportunity Ahead  

By investing in resilient, low-carbon production landscapes, companies can:  

• Strengthen relationships with producers and reduce long-term sourcing risk   

• Deliver verified Scope 3 reductions at competitive cost  

• Secure stable, climate-resilient supply chains from their strategic sourcing landscapes   

• Meet compliance and consumer expectations through credible, traceable impact data  

The path forward for industry is clear. The agri-food sector is embracing a new model of climate action: one built on collaboration, shared investment, and landscape-level impact. By aligning efforts across sourcing regions and value chains, companies can drive scalable, credible change while strengthening resilience and unlocking long-term value. 

Read more details on this new approach to secure agriculture for the future.