GRI 13 topics by materiality
Directly material
13.5 Soil health
13.6 Pesticides use
13.7 Water and effluents
13.8 Waste
13.21 Living income and living wage
Indirectly material
13.1 Emissions
13.2 Climate adaptation and resilience
13.3 Biodiversity
13.9 Food security
13.23 Supply chain traceability
Not material
13.4 Natural ecosystem conversion
13.10 Food safety
13.11 Animal health and welfare
13.12 Local communities [1]
13.13 Land and resource rights [1]
13.14 Rights of indigenous people [1]
13.15 Non-discrimination and equal opportunity
13.16 Forced or compulsory labour
13.17 Child labour
13.18 Freedom of association and collective bargaining
13.19 Occupation health and safety
13.20 Employment practices
13.22 Economic inclusion [1]
13.24 Public policy [1]
13.25 Anti-competitive behaviour
13.26 Anti-corruption
[1] Given their history, I could make an argument about the relevance of allotments to these topics, but not in the way the GRI means.
Environmental data
Basic analysis:
Temperatures for outdoor areas vs. areas under cover
Effects of rainfall on soil moisture, outdoor vs. under cover
Met Office temperature data vs. self-recorded
Change of soil temp over time
Possible future avenues to explore:
Comparing soil moisture retention after a winter of green manure against 2023 baseline
Potential benefits on water use of different techniques (ollas, mulching etc.)
Carbon saved by growing own instead of buying from supermarket (reliable data tricky to source!)
Data I gather myself
(approx. weekly):
Air temperature . . .
Soil temperature . . .
Soil moisture . . .
. . . for both outside and inside the polytunnel
Other data sources:
Financial data
Basic analysis:
Cost of running allotment =
hours spent x living wage hourly rate +
consumable costs
service costs
‘fixed asset’ costs
(cash basis used rather than accrual, for simplicity!)
Benefit of running allotment =
Weight of produce x Soil Association average retail price for that fortnight
or
weight of produce x average supermarket retail price (if Soil Association data not available)
Overall benefit = total cost - total benefit, calculated as:
gross
less ‘fixed assets’
less ‘wages’
Possible future avenues to explore:
Financial benefits of seed-saving
Total cost of growing a particular vegetable vs. buying from supermarket
Data I gather myself
(approx. weekly):
Time spent working on the plot
Cost of seeds, materials and other resources
Cost of equipment
Cost of services (i.e. rent and water charge)
Weight of produce brought home
Other data sources:
Soil Association Horticultural Prices (average retail price)
Average prices calculated from supermarkets’ online shopping services (for produce not covered by Soil Association data)