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This was the reality facing a global food company with a broad portfolio of agricultural commodities - from high-profile ingredients like cocoa and palm oil to lesser-known but environmentally intensive crops like rice and mint.

With limited traceability in some areas and no central method to compare impact across products, setting credible nature targets or taking action felt like guesswork. The company turned to our Nature Footprint Services for a clearer path forward.

Make sense of fragmented procurement data

A major barrier the company faced was inconsistent sourcing data. Some commodities were traceable to exact farms, while others only to the country level or to an open commodity market. This made it challenging to compare environmental risks across the supply chain, prepare for ESG compliance, or identify where to act first.

We used our Nature Footprint Services to build a geospatial sourcing model tailored to their data availability. By combining and enhancing different levels of traceability, we created a unified, visual footprint across all commodities.

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Here’s how we built supply chain clarity from complexity:

Integrated precise sourcing locations where available.
Used spatial models and world-renowned open data to estimate country- and region-level sourcing.
Applied scientifically validated impact factors for each commodity and location.

This allowed the company to see its whole supply chain in one consistent, comparable view, calculate the complete nature impact, and set the stage for targeted action.

Assess the full nature picture, beyond carbon

Initially, the company’s sustainability strategy was weighted toward greenhouse gas emissions. But climate is just one part of environmental assessment. Our analysis showed that high-water-use crops like rice and mint created significant environmental stress in vulnerable sourcing regions, well beyond their carbon footprint.

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We applied a multi-indicator assessment to broaden their environmental visibility. This helped them evaluate risk across four core environmental indicators:

Water stress.
Land use change and conversion.
Biodiversity loss.
Deforestation risk.

The result? A shift in priorities - moving beyond carbon-only thinking to a more complete, nature-positive strategy grounded in diverse, location-specific risks.

Target precise traceability where it counts

While full traceability across every commodity is the ideal, it’s rarely realistic in the near term. Instead of chasing a complete map, we helped the company focus traceability efforts where the environmental stakes were highest.

Using LandGriffon’s spatial sourcing models, satellite data, and supply chain overlays, we pinpointed the areas and products that required the most attention.

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We focused on improvements where they would have the most significant impact:

Traced likely origin regions for commodities like mint and rice using trade and flow models.
Applied localized impact proxies where precise supplier data was unavailable.

This enabled progress without perfect data, proving that better traceability can be built iteratively and strategically.

Connect data to real business decisions

Even with strong environmental data, it doesn’t mean much if it’s siloed from teams making sourcing and product decisions. We worked with the company to integrate nature footprint insights directly into decision-making processes, ensuring that environmental data influenced real-world outcomes.

Using our tools, internal teams were able to:

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Model how changes in sourcing would shift the environmental impact.
Evaluate the effectiveness of supplier programs (e.g., regenerative practices or water-saving interventions).
Run scenario tests on geographic shifts or commodity substitutions.
Break down decision-making silos by giving all teams access to actionable sustainability data where they need it most.

This helped them reduce impact while maintaining product quality and business continuity, demonstrating that sustainability and performance can go hand in hand.

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Turn supply chain insight into strategic, sustainable action

Without a credible baseline, the company struggled to set measurable, defensible targets. Our services established that baseline, grounded in science, aligned with leading frameworks like SBTN and TNFD, and customized to the company's sourcing reality.

With a clear view of their nature footprint, they could:

Assess their nature footprint with geospatial, science-backed precision.
Prioritize actions based on impact across land, water, biodiversity, and forests.
Set realistic, location-specific environmental targets.
Align internal teams on a shared path forward and communicate their sustainability targets and actions confidently.
Drive meaningful change with the insights that mattered most to their business.

Now equipped with traceable, multi-dimensional impact data, the company moved from risk identification to proactive strategy, putting nature at the heart of its supply chain transformation.

Calculating the water and nature footprint of a global supply chain.

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Impact

Value

Turning fragmented supply data into actionable insights using geospatial nature footprinting.

Make sense of fragmented procurement data

Here’s how we built supply chain clarity from complexity:

Assess the full nature picture, beyond carbon

We applied a multi-indicator assessment to broaden their environmental visibility. This helped them evaluate risk across four core environmental indicators:

Target precise traceability where it counts

We focused on improvements where they would have the most significant impact:

Connect data to real business decisions

Using our tools, internal teams were able to:

Turn supply chain insight into strategic, sustainable action

Other Case Studies.

From cows to cocoa: How a mission-driven food brand traced impact across its complex supply chain.

From cows to cocoa: How a mission-driven food brand traced impact across its complex supply chain.

Turning deforestation insights into corporate transparency for Unilever.

Turning deforestation insights into corporate transparency for Unilever.

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