Blonk's latest news

05-01-2025
Enabling Rabobank to support horticulture growers in calculating their CO2-footprints
Discover how FastCrop™ Footprint helps Rabobank streamline CO2 footprint calculations, collect primary data for growers, and offer expert advice to reduce emissions effectively

24-11-2024
Setting the standard for sustainable food systems: Initiative for an US Footprint Database
Mérieux NutriSciences | Blonk launches a pioneering initiative: developing a U.S.-specific footprint database designed to empower food system stakeholders in their transition toward sustainability.

21-10-2024
Impact of allocation methods on the environmental footprint in the Dutch agro sector
Allocation plays a vital role in LCA CO2 footprint calculations. Read how allocation keys distribute environmental impacts in Dutch agro sectors like dairy, veal, and pork. These insights are part of PPS Klimaatperspectief (Climate Perspective Dutch Agro Production) study.

29-08-2024
Generating SBTi and GHG Protocol corporate footprints in under 4 weeks using Agri-footprint FLAG
In this insightful Q&A , learn how Agri-footprint FLAG helped Terrascope to unlock a new offering for their land-intensive clients.

27-08-2024
New Horizons: Mérieux NutriSciences | Blonk opens office in the US
We are excited to announce our geography expansion with our US office opening. Our colleagues Janjoris, Alessandra and Marty will be expanding our business in North America and expand the team with more environmental footprinting experts.
Join the celebration of our US office opening on September 30th,2024!

18-07-2024
Carbon footprint tool for seafood sector
For Seafish, UK's public body supporting the UK seafood sector, we developed a sector Carbon Footprint Tool. The tool enables UK seafood businesses (wildcapture and aquaculture to calculate product carbon footprints and gain insights to supply chain improvements.

10-07-2024
MxNS | Blonk’s Footprint Solution empowers Rabobank to help horticultural entrepreneurs to reduce their CO2-footprint
To accelerate sustainability in the Dutch horticultural sector, Rabobank aims to support horticultural entrepreneurs in getting insights into their CO2 footprint. We support Rabobank with a digital footprint solution, encompassing primary data collection, CO2-footprint calculations, and an expert helpdesk.

17-04-2024
Blonk is now Mérieux NutriSciences | Blonk
Since March 2023 Blonk is part of Mérieux NutriSciences group to strengthen our global position in environmental footprinting. This integration also means a new brand name and visual identity, symbolizing the beginning of new chapter. Blonk is now Mérieux NutriSciences | Blonk. New brand name, same dedication and expert team!

20-03-2024
“The Plate of Change” for healthy and sustainable diets in Central Europe
Blonk supported WWF Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) with diet modelling techniques and environmental data to develop win-win eating patterns. Sustainable diets that meet national nutritional requirements and reduce environmental footprints of diets for adults in Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary in 2030, while respecting cultural dietary habits.

14-03-2024
'Crop System Efficiency Index' and Managed Grassland now included in the updated LUC Impact Dataset
Blonk’s LUC Impact Dataset provides Land Use Change (LUC) Greenhouse Gas emissions for 9,000+ crop and country combinations. Our updated 2024 version now includes the ‘Crop System Efficiency Index’, which considers multiple cropping scenarios, and managed grassland as a land use category and additional crop type.

13-03-2024
Critically reviewed Life Cycle Assessment studies of Oatly products and comparison with cow’s dairy products
An overview of the publicly available LCA and footprint studies for Oatly. Through critically reviewed LCA studies, we have compared the environmental footprint of various Oatly products with their cow’s dairy counterparts.

21-02-2024
Building an accurate footprint strategy with Blonk's Environmental Footprinting Modules
Implementing a consistent footprint monitoring strategy can be challenging, because of complex and largescale primary data collection. Therefore, we have created specific Environmental Footprinting Modules. For Albert Heijn we utilize several Environmental Footprinting Modules and support them with carbon footprint calculations of fruit and vegetable products.

18-02-2024
How to account for Land Use Change emissions in multiple cropping systems?
Multiple cropping is a practice, where a plot of land is subsequently planted with varying crops and harvested multiple times in a year. In the Land Use Change (LUC) methodology this has not been considered yet, leading to inaccurate LUC emission calculations. Therefore, we’ve investigated the opportunities to include multiple cropping and make more fair calculations, by applying the ‘Crop System Efficiency Index’.

14-02-2024
Integration of Biodiversity Metrics in Life Cycle Assessment methodology
The global food system is an important contributor to the global environmental crises through resource-intensive practices, contributing to habitat destruction and biodiversity loss. Addressing the urgent need for quantifying biodiversity loss in Life Cycle Assessment, Blonk and PBL connect a biodiversity metric to LCA.

10-01-2024
Use of Blonk footprint data in KringloopWijzer
The KringloopWijzer is a software application used by dairy farmers to gain insight into the environmental performance of their businesses. Unfortunately, there seems to be a lack of understanding about the inclusion of Blonk data. In article (in Dutch), we explain the situation from our point of view.

06-12-2023
SWEET: Sustainability of Sweeteners and Sweetness Enhancers
We participated in the SWEET project, an EU Horizon 2020 initiative, co-chairing Work Package 5 with the University of Surrey to assess the sustainability implications of sweeteners and sweetness enhancers. Our work included Life Cycle Sustainability Assessments (LCSA) (attributional and consequential and social) and dataset development, with the resulting environmental datasets now publicly available.

04-12-2023
Climate perspective on Dutch agri-food production
The government's greenhouse gas reporting for agriculture overlooks sector-wide emission reduction efforts by focusing only on national emissions without considering cross-sector effects. As a knowledge partner in the PPP Climate Perspective on Dutch Agri-production, Blonk contributed to a visualization matrix that reveals these hidden impacts.

06-11-2023
How to account for LUC free certificates?
There is a need for sustainable land-use practices and policies. Certification schemes for Land Use Change or deforestation free products can help to promote sustainable sourcing practices. However, within LUC accounting guidance, there is currently no established international guidance. Recognizing this gap, our LUC expert team has drafted guidelines for LUC-free certifications to set internal standards for our team.

13-09-2023
Unlocking Land Use Change Insights
We are delighted to introduce our new LUC Impact Tool to you. This fully web-based tool will support you to automate your Land Use Change calculations, when little primary data is available, and deepen your knowledge and understanding of Land Use Change. The tool includes some innovative and exclusive features, such as the Carbon Opportunity Cost functionality.

01-08-2023
Eating for Net Zero: the role diets can play in the transition to lower environmental impact
Following the approach of the 2016 study WWF-UK commissioned Blonk in 2021-2022 again to model the Livewell diet and investigate how diet shift can enable a nature positive net-zero transition in the UK. The findings show that with a dietary change it is possible not to exceed the planetary boundary for GHG emission, whilst meeting the nutritional needs, being cultural acceptable and without increasing the price of the diet

14-06-2023
New Agri-footprint FLAG version compliant to the SBTi FLAG Guidelines
Our data experts are always looking for ways to enrich Blonk's Agri-footprint database and keep it valuable for its users. Therefore, we are proud to announce a new version of Agri-footprint which complies with the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) Forest Land and Agriculture Guidance (FLAG). Agri-footprint FLAG will help the increasingly large group of organizations which set FLAG targets in analyzing their Greenhouse Gas (GHG) inventory.

13-06-2023
Acquistion Merieux, an interview with Hans Blonk and Jeroen Sleenhoff
The first date took place at a restaurant. Now the honeymoon is in full swing. New doors have opened since Mérieux NutriSciences proposed to Dutch company Blonk, and Blonk said a resounding yes. This acquisition promises a significant difference in food safety and sustainability. Jeroen Sleenhof and Hans Blonk are happy to tell you more.

13-06-2023
Contributing to a better world together
Interview Hans Blonk about the acquisition of Blonk by Mérieux NutriSciences.
The timing couldn’t have been better. “Blonk also wanted to gain a foothold in North America,” says Hans Blonk. “Thanks to the acquisition, we are accelerating and rolling out this ambition.”

11-06-2023
Functional feed additives reduce the carbon footprint of shrimp production
Together with Adisseo, Blonk performed a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study of two shrimp feed additives. Feed additives have the potential to improve the environmental performance of aquaculture, and in this case shrimp farming. Therefore, Adisseo initiated a project to measure the potential of functional feed additives to the environmental footprint of shrimp farming. The study shows that aquafeed additives (Sanacore®GM and Aqualyso®) can reduce the carbon footprint of shrimp production.