Click on the links below to read the guidance for each step. At the end of most sections a link to a pdf copy is provided for printing.

Step 1 - Why do a CALM audit?

Step 2 - Decide your business boundaries

Step 3 - Get your data together

Step 4 - Notes on setting up your Profile

Step 5 - Notes on using the calculator

Step 6 - Notes on using the reports

Step 7 - Notes on using the mitigation advisory notes

Step 1 - Why do a CALM audit?

CALM raises the awareness of the greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions caused by land management activities and focuses management attention on ways of reducing those emissions or increasing the carbon storage or sequestration. 

Businesses in the land use sector differ from most other businesses by producing mainly nitrous oxide, N₂O, (from organic and inorganic nitrogen fertiliser) and methane, CH₄, (from livestock), with only a small percentage of the total emissions from carbon dioxide, CO₂, (from energy use).  CH₄ and N₂O have a much stronger global warming potential (GWP) than carbon dioxide, of 21 and 310 respectively so small emissions of these gases can have significant impact on the carbon balance of your farm/estate.  To bring together the emissions of these three GHGs in a single figure, they are often recorded as CO₂ equivalents (CO₂e) or Carbon Equivalents (CE).   

Land management and forestry may also remove CO₂ from the atmosphere by storing it in soils and trees.  This is called carbon sequestration, or removal.  We speak of soil and trees being carbon sinks.

We believe that before you can do anything about the quantities of GHGs emitted from your businesses it makes sense to measure what they are and see how they arise.  CALM stands for Carbon Accounting for Land Managers.  It offers a way for farmers and other land managers to measure the annual emissions of CO₂, CH₄ and N₂O from their farm/estate and balance this against any carbon which is sequestered (stored) in their soil and trees. It also highlights opportunities to reduce those emissions.  The notes provided alongside the CALM report, which explains your carbon balance, provides some mitigation advice you can take to reduce your emissions and some of these are aligned with economic savings too - i.e. those based on efficiencies of inputs. 

Because CALM follows the same methodology as the UK GHG inventory, farm performance can be related to national performance.  We are also very aware of reduction targets that other businesses are being asked to reach and the possibility of this falling on the rural sector in the future: CALM would help to prepare for that future if it arises.  Another future possibility where CALM could be used is in a future carbon offsetting and trading scheme.

Regrettably, it is not possible to account for off farm use of renewable energy generated on the farm in the current IPPC accounting framework. Your own carbon balance will be improved by the renewables you use on the holding being measured, but not by exports to other users.

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Step 2 - Decide your business boundaries

Deciding what to include in CALM may be difficult, especially if your business includes residential and commercial enterprises.  In essence CALM looks at the land based enterprises i.e. farming and forestry (woodland).

We have outlined some of the issues below. The key thing is to be consistent from year to year to ensure that you compare like with like.  We recommend you make a formal record of the land and enterprises you have included in the calculation so you can easily refer back in future years.

• Farm/estate boundaries – be clear on what land area you analyse in your account to ensure consistency from year to year. This may need some thought in respect to issues discussed below.

• CALM is equally applicable for owner occupier or tenanted farms, or indeed farms which have owned and rented land.  The main consideration is the possession of the required information on energy and fertiliser use, and the stocking, cropping, land use change and woodland of the business.

• For Estates with tenants - the cropping and livestock of tenants can be included in the Estate account if landowner and tenants are able to work together to compile all the relevant data. If, as will often be the case, the Estate office does not have the detailed data for each tenant, then a CALM account can be done for the in-hand farming and forestry operations of the estate, and any other enterprises under Estate control for which the energy use information is available.  In future CALM may offer the facility to tag individual calculations with individual reports – so each tenant can do their own calculation under an ‘estate tag’ giving the opportunity to examine the farms and estate total carbon calculations.   

• Contractors – Many farms contract out certain operations or enterprises.  CALM offers the facility to include estimates of the fuel used by contractors who work on your land by using Horsepower (HP) hours.  This ensures that your GHG account accurately reflects emissions from farming operations on your land.   Equally users who perform contracting work for other farmers are able to adjust their own fuel use, deducting that which is used off-farm. 

• Share or contract farming – this is a similar situation to let farms. Co-operation will be needed if a whole estate approach is to be effective.

• Multiple small areas of woodland should be added together and included in the total woodland area. Note that hedgerows should not be included in the woodland area.  the current view is that these hedges are in equilibrium - that is releasing as much CO₂ as they are storing in any year.  Likewise, the current scientific view of orchards is that they too are in equilibrium - as much CO₂ is released to the atmosphere from the crop and the orchard management (pruning) as is captured.  

• Other businesses in buildings let on the estate would generally not be included. If the energy invoices include these their use should be deducted.  The energy use, and associated emissions, in this interpretation are allocated to the businesses occupying the buildings not the Estate.

• It would seem sensible to treat energy used in farmhouse as per farm accounts.

• Energy used in commercial buildings may be included if the commercial operations are part of the farm or Estate business under analysis, but ensure that you are consistent if annual calculations are completed.  

• Short term grazing agreements – the animals grazing on the land of the business under analysis should be included.  This may be done by taking the annual average livestock numbers of the animals grazing on your land and the actual grazing days. E.g. if you have 500 ewes grazing for 3 months, then you should enter in the calculator  a quarter of these numbers i.e. 125 ewes, as though they were on the farm year round, but still enter 3 months, i.e. 90 grazing days.

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Step 3 - Get your data together

It is a good idea to gather all this information together first before starting to enter it into the CALM calculator. The lists and notes below will give you an idea of the information the calculator requires. Clearly you will not use all the data entry fields. More detailed information is given within the calculator when you open the field.

The data entry is in split into two main areas - Emissions and Sequestration. These are divided into ‘Sections’ (bold headings below) and sub-divided into ‘Fields’, these are listed in the tables. You choose the fields relevant to your business.

Step 5 - Notes on using CALM

The key action is of course to enter the data.  We strongly advise however that users first read the notes on why do a CALM audit, on how to define the business to be analysed, and on the data required which it is best to gather together first before starting.

The data entry section of CALM comprises an expandable series of headings.  

For Emissions there are ten section headings: (i) Energy (ii) Fertilisers (iii) Dairy cows, Cattle and Sheep (iv) Other livestock (v) Crops and grass (vi) Contracting (vii) Land use change (viii) Lime (ix) Organic soil and (x) Organic manures moved off or bought on to the farm.

For Sequestration there are three section headings:  (i) Land use change, (ii) Farm woodland (iii) Forestry.

Users are encouraged to click their way through the headings to see which are relevant for their business.  If, for example, the business has no livestock then there is no need to click open that section.  By clicking a section heading, a note explaining the data required in this section appears and a series of fields of data to be entered.   In turn, when clicked, each of these fields expands to show the data entry boxes. The information input is saved at the point of entry so will not be lost even if you log-off midway.

Not all the Stewardship options have any impact on the GHG emissions.

Hedgerows and orchards often cause confusion. In both cases once they are mature the change in carbon is negligible.  However new orchards and hedges (or destruction of orchards and hedges) will capture (or lose carbon) and can best be estimated by entering as woodland until they have reached majority.

There are also a number of occasions when the assessor needs to make a judgement.  For example, is uncropped land more allied to grass than arable (thereby introducing a land use change) or is it still largely arable in nature.  Even where there is no weed growth but the land is uncultivated there is likely to be some carbon capture and it might be appropriate to enter a proportion of the area as a land use change. It is important to be consistent in treatment from year to year.

Drained peat has also caused problems. How many drains constitute drained.  Ultimately there is not sufficient evidence to be precise but again an estimate and consistency is the best course of action. 

When the mouse is moved over a data entry box the 'click to enter' lights up pale yellow. The user clicks it, it turns blue, with a little box underneath offering OK or cancel.  The user enters his data over the blue window and clicks the OK. The calculator responds  'saving', and then displays the number entered.

Note that the calculator will only accept digits.  No commas or other punctuation or symbols should be entered. If these are entered, the calculator will return "invalid".  If this is done, the user should click invalid, and then re-enter the correct value without commas, and click OK. 

Users can go back and alter data entered at any time.  When the mouse passes over a data field it goes yellow,(eg 4000  litres ) it can be clicked and the new data entered followed by OK.

After the data for each field has been entered the calculator adds the emissions associated with this item (or the carbon stored) to a running total of emissions and sequestration.  The running total is displayed in a box at the top left of the Data Entry section.  In future versions it is planned to float this box down as the users work their way down the data fields.  At present the user has to scroll back up to the top of the data entry box to see this running total.

This running total facility is useful for users who want to see the impact on total emissions each element of the calculation makes, as they build up the whole account.  It is also very useful for doing 'what if' calculations on individual items.  For example the user can change the number of dairy cows up or down to see the effect this makes.

The figures in the running total are measured in tonnes of Carbon Dioxide Equivalent per annum.  

These can be ignored, and closed by clicking on section or field heading.  

There is a total of 339 data entry points in CALM, but most individual businesses will only use a few tens of these.  In most sections only a few fields, sometimes none, will be applicable. The fields and sections can be closed when data has been entered to enable ease of use.

Each of the livestock categories has several pieces of data to be entered.  Take, for example, the field 'dairy cows with yield greater than 9,000 litres'.  There are five pieces of data asked for:  the number of cows, the number of grazing days and then three numbers which are concerned with the disposal of manure.  These ask the percent which is stored as liquid manure, the percent spread daily, and the percent stored as solid (FYM). 

When answering this information on manure disposal, the percentages must add up to 100% for the field used, and even if one or two types are not used, eg if the farmer stores all his manure as FYM, the other non-used categories must have zero entered.  If this is not done there will be an error in the calculation.

Note that this warning only applies to livestock fields where there are animals recorded on the farm.  

As soon as all the relevant data has been entered the user can turn to the reports sections to see the results. 

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Step 6 - Notes on using the reports

Tables 1 and 2 in the Report section show you a breakdown of your carbon balance results from sources and activities.  Table 3 reports on the emissions generated from the production of your nitrogen fertiliser.

Table 1 sets out the emissions by broad category of source, eg Energy, Fertiliser (nitrogen only), Dairy cows, cattle & sheep, Land Use Change (loss of carbon), and by greenhouse gas - CO₂, CH₄, N₂O and CO₂ equivalents. This allows you to compare emissions from general activities and identifies which activities emit which GHG.  Your total emissions in tonnes of CO₂ equivalent are found in the bottom right hand corner of the emissions section. 

This figure is then balanced against the carbon stored on your farm in soils and trees which is set out by broad category, e.g. Land Use Change (gain in soil carbon), Farm Woodland and Forestry.  The greenhouse gas stored is CO₂.  The total CO₂ sequestered is shown in the right hand corner of the sequestration section.

Your carbon balance is the total emissions in CO₂ equivalents minus the total CO₂ sequestered and this is found in the bottom right hand corner of the table.

Table 2 sets out the emissions and sequestration by detailed sources or activities – ie energy is broken down into the various fields such as electricity, biodiesel, unleaded petrol etc, nitrogen fertiliser is broken down into its different types, land use change is broken down and farm woodland: emissions for each is shown in CO₂ equivalents. 
This report is more detailed and analyses specific activities, identifying which are the heaviest emitters and which sequester the most CO₂.  This table also has a column which show “Percent of totals” which allows you to compare more easily the different activities and see which one is the most significant.  The last column identifes the relevant "Mitigation Notes" for each activity and gives advice on how to reduce your emissions. More about this in Step 7 below.

Table 3 uses the data inputted for the nitrogen fertiliser to work out the energy used and CO₂ emitted, in the production of that fertiliser and are the only Scope 3 emissions we have reported on.  Scope 3 emissions are excluded from main calculation because the emissions do not actually occur on the farm and there is less of a direct link with activity than, for example, the scope 2 emissions.  Separation of these emissions also reduces the potential for double counting in the national inventory (i.e. once by the manufacturer and once by the farmer).   While farmers can clearly not reduce the emissions involved in manufacture of fertiliser they may reduce emissions from these sources by buying from more efficient producers or even reducing their purchase (assuming the slack is not taken up by other farmers).  The Greenhouse Gas Protocol Standard (click here for note or see link on Further Reading page) encourages inclusion of Scope 3 emissions which are significant. It must be emphasised that there is enormous variation in the GHG between sources of fertilsier and while the manufacture of urea usually has lower emissions than the manufacture of AN there is an enormous range between plants - and some plants are based on use of energy from renewable sources and therefore have low emissions despite high energy use. Our figures are for guidance only.
 

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Step 7 - Notes on using the mitigation advice notes

The mitigation advice notes are found underneath the tables on the report page.  These give advice on how to reduce the emissions from activities on your farm where you have inputed data.  Table 2 links this advice to each of your activities in the last column under “Help”.  There is also opportunity to download all your mitigation advice via a link in the lefthand column at the top of the Reports page.

The mitigation advice has been compiled using the latest research on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural and land management practices and increasing carbon sequestered in soil and trees.  We have focused on mitigation advice that is accepted by Defra and will have a positive effect on your CALM balance (and will also be measured in the UK GHG inventory).  There is much uncertainty about some mitigation practices, especially around soil management practices which will not show up on your CALM balance.  Where we have suggested mitigation options that will not show on your CALM balance we have clearly stated this.

References and some further information are given at the bottom of each section, although these are ever increasing research areas and new evidence will present itself all the time.  We will endeavour to keep the mitigation advice up to date.

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