Our team is growing, and we are very pleased to announce Dieu Linh, Alessandra and Nynke joined team Blonk over the past two months. All three strengthen the Blonk Sustainability Tools division as consultants. We warmly welcome them and are happy to introduce them to you. Let’s meet Dieu Linh, Alessandra and Nynke!

We continue to broaden our skills and talents. Over the past two months Mariem, Melissa and Iana joined Team Blonk. Mariem strengthens our international team of freelancers. Melissa and Iana join our consultant's division. Welcome, we are excited to have you as part of our team.

We are delighted to share the latest APS-footprint developments with you. This time we'd like to give you an update about the recent launch of Sustell™ together with DSM, the release of a methodological study we performed on feed additives and LCA and the addition of the Annual Crops Module, which is a new feature of the APS-footprint tool. Lastly, we are very happy to introduce another APS-footprint team member to you!

Deforestation and land use change (LUC) remain big, global problems and main contributors to climate change. Globally, forest coverage continues to decrease by an astonishing average of 4.7 million hectares every year (FAO, 2020). Agricultural expansion is responsible for a large part of LUC, which includes for example conversion from forest area to cropland, but also from grassland to cropland. Well-known examples of LUC are connected to the production of palm oil, lumber wood and soybean, but also crops like maize, cassava and sweet potatoes are associated with LUC. Blonk developed a tool to help experts to calculate the greenhouse gas emission emerging from LUC when little data is available. Now an updated version of the LUC Impact tool (formerly known as Direct Land Use Change Assessment Tool) is available.

Team Blonk continues to expand, and this time we are crossing borders and welcome Marty Heller, who will represent Blonk in the US and Canada. Welcome Marty, we are very happy to have you on board!

Together with DSM we set up a methodological study, by way of road testing, to explore the applicability of sector Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) guidelines, such as FAO LEAP and European Commission Product Environmental Footprint (EC PEF). In APS-footprint we modeled nutritional interventions, specifically the use of feed additives, and explored the effects. The study was externally reviewed by experts, according to the ISO 14044 LCA guidelines.

Our current food system has a substantial environmental impact. On behalf of WWF-Belgium, we analysed which products fit in a sustainable healthy diet for a family of four. This research is part of Eat4Change, an European project to make food production more sustainable, combat biodiversity loss and tackle the climate crisis.

At Blonk, we are very proud of our cooperation with innovative companies that bring sustainable business into practice. DSM is for us a strategic partner in developing our flagship APS-footprint tool. For DSM the APS-footprint became the core engine of Sustell™, a recently launched holistic animal protein sustainability service.

Our team keeps on expanding with people who are highly motivated to make the world a sustainable and healthy place. In the past month we welcomed Marjolein and Daniele. Marjolein teams up with our office manager Roeli and Daniele is part of our Data & Model team. We are very happy to have you onboard.

The Blonk Team keeps expanding! Two new colleagues have joined us since the beginning of 2021. Marcelo is no stranger to our team, some years ago he worked as a scientific model developer. We are happy he rejoins us, this time in the role of Business Unit Manager of Blonk Sustainability Tools. Simone joins our team of consultants. It is with great pleasure that we introduce you to Marcelo and Simone.

Have you heard of environmental footprinting or Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and want to know more - or fresh up your knowledge - about its purpose and methods? Join our Webinar Series!

Over the last years Blonk Consultants has been highly involved with the Global Feed LCA Institute (GFLI) initiative. Currently, we are assisting various sectors, regions and industries to disclose their data through the GFLI database.

We are happy to share the latest APS-footprint developments with you. After our launch webinar on September 30th we received a lot of positive reactions from companies, that are recognizing the importance of making their business future-proof by incorporating sustainability. This update informs you about the latest APS-footprint developments. Also, we are giving you a sneak peek behind the scenes and introducing one of the developers to you!

Recently we conducted an ISO-reviewed Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Fermotein™, an innovative food ingredient which is used in vegetarian and vegan food products, produced by The Protein Brewery.

Our colleagues Roline Broekema and Hans Blonk investigated together with a group of researchers what a future-proof and sustainable healthy diet could look like for the Netherlands. Their findings are published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Climate change being one of the most urgent challenges of our time. Society is looking for ways to define the contours of a sustainable world. Accordingly, more and more companies are joining the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi), which help to monitor and reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. 

Are you looking to help international companies, governments and civil society organisations develop sustainable food supply chains? We are expanding our ambitious team and have several vacancies.

We are proud to present APS-footprint, the flagship of Blonk Sustainability Tools. This powerful tool helps companies in the animal production value chain define and monitor solutions to create more sustainable animal production systems.

ProAgros asked Blonk Consultants to prepare an environmental footprint of soybeans grown by a Brazilian soy producing group certified under the Sustainable Farming Assurance Programme (SFAP). The carbon footprint of this soy is 0.27 CO₂-eq per kg soybeans, 24% lower than the average carbon footprint of Brazilian soy.

We are extending our Agri-footprint database, introducing the concept of ‘Branded Data Add-ons’, which help companies to make the environmental performance of their products visible and share it with stakeholders.

On 20 July 2020 the results and the 'HortiFootprint Category Rules' (HFCR) were presented and are now available for the sector. Blonk Consultants as part of the project team, was involved as an expert and contributed to the development of the calculation rules, based on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology.

Sharing environmental impact data is the start of more awareness on the impact of food and might lead to more environmentally friendly purchasing behaviour in supermarkets. The Food Consumption Impact Datasets can be used to assess the environmental impact of consumer food, while being able to rely on a consistent, qualitatively sound set of data. They open up a range of possibilities for companies or organisations to develop solutions, tools or reports provoking the movement to a more sustainable world.

The Blonk Consultants team has expanded again! Two new colleagues joined us during the past month – but of course, in this time of Corona both are working from home. Davide Lucherini is a consultant and David Wichmann is our new data & model specialist. Davide and David are delighted to introduce themselves to you.

Our current eating habits have a negative impact on the climate and the planet. Seaweed could be a promising ingredient for this, since it does not require additional nutrients or water to grow. The ProSeaweed programme investigates whether seaweed could be a healthy and sustainable food source for people and animals.