Scope 3 Emissions in Agri-Food: Lessons from Proba

Fertiliser sits in an awkward place in the net zero transition: it’s essential for yields, but it’s also one of the biggest drivers of indirect emissions in food supply chains. If you’re a UK startup building in climate, agri-tech, or B2B SaaS, that tension is the opportunity.

TechRound’s “Startup of the Week” spotlight on Proba (founded 2022) is a useful case study because the product isn’t “another dashboard”. It’s a commercial mechanism that helps money move through the supply chain by turning hard-to-prove Scope 3 emission reductions into something companies can report, and potentially pay for.

This matters beyond agriculture. The same playbook—make invisible impact measurable, get it independently verified, then attach it to budget lines that already exist—shows up across climate change & net zero transition markets (energy efficiency, building retrofit, logistics, industrial heat). Proba just happens to be tackling one of the messiest categories first.

“Fertiliser use is the main driver of emissions in the food industry, accounting for roughly 5% of global emissions.” — Sijbrand Tieleman, CEO and Co-Founder at Proba

Why fertiliser is a Scope 3 headache (and a startup opportunity)

Scope 3 is where most agri-food emissions hide, and fertiliser is often a large slice of it. Food brands and traders can electrify offices and buy renewable energy (Scope 2) relatively quickly. But fertiliser-related emissions sit upstream: in manufacturing, distribution, and field application. That’s why fertiliser becomes a board-level issue when companies get serious about net zero commitments.

Here’s the commercial snag most companies hit: reducing fertiliser emissions frequently costs money now (switching products, changing application practices, agronomy support), while the value shows up later—often on someone else’s balance sheet as “lower Scope 3”. Farmers feel asked to fund change that benefits everyone else.

From a startup marketing angle, this is gold:

• The pain is budgeted (compliance, ESG reporting, supplier programmes)
• The buyer has deadline pressure (annual reporting cycles, SBTi-aligned plans)
• The category is high-trust (credibility beats flashy features)

Proba positions itself right in that gap: measure and verify reductions so they can be credibly reported and financially recognised.

What Proba is actually selling: credibility that moves money

Proba’s core product is measurement + verification that makes fertiliser emission reductions tradable and reportable. That’s a sharper proposition than “helping farmers be greener”. It’s “helping supply chains fund greener farming because the reductions can be proven.”

The mechanism (in plain English)

Proba’s approach, as described in the TechRound feature, looks like this:

1. A farm or cooperative adopts lower-emission fertiliser practices/products.
2. Proba measures the resulting emission reductions using a science-based methodology.
3. Those reductions are independently verified.
4. The verified reductions are certified, so businesses can use them in sustainability reporting (and in some models, trade or claim them).

That final step is the commercial unlock. When reductions become auditable, they can be attached to:

• procurement decisions (“we’ll pay more for verified lower-impact crops”),
• supplier incentive programmes,
• sustainability-linked finance, or
• internal carbon pricing and abatement budgets.

Why verification is the product, not a feature

Most early-stage climate startups underinvest in trust signals. Proba doesn’t have that luxury because carbon claims in agriculture are scrutinised—sometimes aggressively.

The TechRound piece notes Proba aligns with recognised accounting frameworks like SBTi and the GHG Protocol. Even if your startup isn’t in carbon accounting, the lesson holds: if you’re selling into net zero transition budgets, your “proof” story is part of your go-to-market.

A simple stance I’ve found useful: if your customer has to defend your numbers to their auditor, you’re not selling software—you’re selling defensibility.

The Proba go-to-market lesson: pick a buyer with a deadline

Proba’s buyers aren’t “everyone who cares about sustainability”; they’re the parts of the supply chain that have to report Scope 3. That’s a narrower, more actionable market definition.

In agri-food, the natural buyers include:

• food brands with public climate targets,
• commodity traders managing supplier emissions exposure,
• fertiliser producers trying to stay relevant as reporting tightens.

Why does that matter for UK startups? Because “net zero” is a crowded claim. The only way to stand out is to tie your offering to a specific operational moment:

• annual ESG disclosures,
• supplier contract renewals,
• SBTi target-setting and progress checks,
• procurement scorecards and tender requirements.

Proba’s narrative is inherently procurement-friendly: verified reductions that can be reported. That gets you into conversations with sustainability, procurement, and finance—three departments that rarely align unless a deadline forces them to.

February is a smart time to sell this story

It’s early February 2026. That’s when many UK and European organisations are:

• planning Q1 supplier initiatives,
• finalising data approaches for the next reporting cycle,
• setting budgets for sustainability programmes before the year gets busy.

A startup that can credibly say “we help you quantify and verify Scope 3 reductions” is landing the message when teams are deciding what to resource.

How to market a climate measurement startup (without sounding vague)

Most climate marketing fails for one reason: it confuses impact with value. “We reduce emissions” is not a value proposition. It’s an outcome. Proba’s framing is stronger because it connects impact to incentives.

Here are practical tactics UK founders can borrow from Proba’s positioning.

1) Lead with the economic unfairness (it’s memorable)

The TechRound article highlights a simple truth: farmers often pay for sustainability while others benefit. That’s not just a moral point—it’s a market insight.

Messaging angle to test:

• “We make sustainability pay for itself in the supply chain.”

That line forces a business conversation, not a philosophical one.

2) Turn “measurement” into a promise customers can repeat

Good B2B messaging is repeatable in one breath. Proba’s promise can be paraphrased as:

• measure,
• verify,
• certify.

If you’re building in the net zero transition space, try shaping your offer into a three-step phrase that implies an audit trail (because that’s what buyers want).

3) Sell the unit of progress, not the platform

Proba effectively sells certified reductions as a unit that can be reported, claimed, or traded. That makes the purchase easier to justify.

Ask yourself:

• What is the “unit” my buyer can put in a board pack?
• Is it tCO2e reduced, verified retrofit projects, supplier compliance rate, MWh saved?

If the unit is fuzzy, the sale is slow.

4) Build distribution through the supply chain, not around it

A subtle advantage in Proba’s model: supply chains already have relationships. Food companies already buy from cooperatives. Fertiliser companies already have channels. Traders already coordinate contracts.

That suggests partnership-led growth:

• Cooperatives as aggregation partners
• Fertiliser producers as co-sellers (when aligned)
• Traders as programme sponsors

For many UK startups, the fastest route to scale is not running more ads—it’s getting embedded where transactions already happen.

A simple playbook for UK startups selling Scope 3 solutions

If you’re building anything that touches Scope 3 emissions reporting, you need to win on trust, workflow fit, and commercial logic. Here’s a concrete checklist you can apply this quarter.

Scope 3 MVP checklist (what buyers will ask)

1. Boundary clarity: What’s included/excluded in your calculation?
2. Methodology transparency: Can you explain it without hand-waving?
3. Verification plan: Who checks the work, and how often?
4. Data practicality: Can suppliers actually provide the inputs?
5. Reporting compatibility: Does it map to GHG Protocol categories and customer reporting structures?
6. Incentive design: Who pays, who benefits, and how does money move?

If you can’t answer #6 crisply, you’ll end up with pilots that never convert.

Example: designing the commercial loop

Proba’s example is a good template:

• Buyer (food company) funds a change upstream (farmer co-op switches fertiliser).
• Measurement + verification proves the reduction.
• Buyer can claim lower Scope 3 emissions.
• Supplier gets paid enough to keep doing it.

That loop is the difference between “nice sustainability project” and “repeatable programme”.

Where Proba fits in the wider net zero transition

Decarbonising agriculture is one of the highest-impact, hardest-to-measure parts of the climate change & net zero transition. Energy is measurable in kWh. Transport has fuel receipts. Farming mixes biology, weather, and local practice—so trust becomes the bottleneck.

That’s why Proba’s emphasis on credible, independently verified reductions matters. It’s also why the market is heating up: companies are under pressure to show real reductions, not just pledges.

If Proba succeeds, it won’t be because they built a prettier interface. It’ll be because they built a standard of proof that multiple parties accept—farmers, food brands, traders, and auditors.

For UK founders watching from the sidelines, the takeaway is straightforward: the next wave of climate startups will compete on accountability infrastructure. Measurement, verification, certification, and incentives are the rails that let capital flow into decarbonisation.

If you’re building in this space, what’s the one part of your customer’s climate plan they struggle to prove—and how could you make it provable enough to fund?