Sustainability
Wayfindr Measure/Report/Verify (MRV) is an online tool to document farm operations,
improve environmental outcomes, and increase net return.
Overview
The International Water Institute (IWI) is a non-profit organization helping farmers and the food supply chain measure and improve environmental sustainability. As a neutral third-party, IWI offers three services that together document a U.S. farm commodity’s production origin:
1. Calculations and certificate
The amount of water, soil and nutrients conserved on a field or collection of fields.
2. Validation of operations
Confirming field activities such as reduced tillage and cover crops.
3. Monitoring and research
Measuring effectiveness and outcomes of science-based best practices.
History of Wayfindr: Science + Practicality
The IWI Stewardship Program was established in 2019 to help producers model agronomic risk and improve sustainability. It was developed in collaboration with farmers and agronomists.
APPLIED SCIENCE
The Wayfinder software application was developed by IWI to quantify and track 15 different indices of farm operation sustainability. Combined, the indices can be used to calculate the total reductions of soil erosion, water use, and fertilizer use compared to standard U.S. agricultural practices for a crop type.
SITE-LEVEL ANALYSIS
Wayfindr helps producers quickly explore how current and potential farm operations affect their fields’ soil and nutrient loss, water retention, profitability, and yield. Farmers select any combination of modifications to tillage, crop rotation, fertilizer application methods, and conservation practices for a particular field or collection of fields.
HOLISTIC STATISTICS
Wayfindr is fully scalable, providing sustainability insights at the field, farm, farmer, and shipment levels. This scalability enables the generation of certificates that quantify sustainability actions and outcomes.
Sustainability Benchmarks
Each of the sustainability index values will fall between the benchmarks of the most common highly disruptive agricultural operation (moldboard plow) and undisturbed continuous nitrogen-fixing cover (alfalfa).
Sustainability Indices
At the core of IWI services is Wayfindr, an application developed to quantify and track 14 indicators of farm field operation sustainability (15 if a field is irrigated). Combined, these indices can be used to calculate the total reductions of soil erosion, water use, and fertilizer use compared to standard U.S. agricultural practices for a crop type.
Wayfindr applies the most widely accepted U.S. scientific formulas to site-specific farm and environmental data to calculate each index. Farm data inputs include crop information, tillage, nutrient application, cover crops, irrigation, and the timing of those activities. Geospatial data inputs include regional authoritatively sourced lidar elevation data, surface water, soils, and weather.
Certificate of Sustainability
The IWI Certificate of Sustainability verifies that soybeans were produced in compliance with U.S. regulations and sustainable practices as outlined in the U.S. Soy Sustainability Assurance Protocol. The certificate also lists the sustainability impacts of how the crop was farmed, compared to conventional farming practices in the U.S..
Additional Indices
Carbon, Biodiversity, and others
Recognizing that the science of sustainability continues to evolve, Wayfindr is built to evolve along with it. As standards for measuring other indicators of sustainability, such as carbon intensity and biodiversity, become well-established and accepted, indices for those variables can be added to Wayfindr for calculations.
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