Agriculture & Landscapes

It’s a time of real change in the world of agriculture and landscape management. Businesses and investors recognise that the condition of natural systems is critical to their long-term ability to operate. Farmers and landowners are looking to strengthen their ability to mitigate production risks from a changing climate.

3Keel’s Agriculture & Landscapes business unit helps organisations to build resilience and enhance productivity in supply chains, improve sourcing strategies – and effectively engage suppliers and farmers.

Whether focusing on soil health, landscape resilience, nature-based solutions or compliance with evolving frameworks, we provide the expertise and experience to turn strategy into effective action on the ground.

Catherine McCosker

Head of Agriculture and Landscapes

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What solutions and expertise do we offer?

We combine strong technical expertise with extensive experience working on farms and in supply chains to provide strategic advice and pragmatic support.

Where our work identifies a need for taking action on forest-risk commodities (such as palm oil, soy and timber) or for wider climate- or nature-related strategies, we join forces with specialist colleagues in our Commodity Supply Chains and Climate, Nature & Resources teams.

Sustainable sourcing strategies

End-to-end support on sustainable and regenerative sourcing for food supply chain businesses
Strategy and framework development – identifying opportunities, risks and priorities, and aligning with organisational needs and priorities
Target setting and metric identification, enabling organisations to make plans, take action and verify progress
Implementation in the field, including programme development, and farmer and supplier engagement

Landscape transformation

Facilitation and strategic advice to support resilient, multi-functional landscapes
Advice on and delivery of collaborative, transformational approaches for driving landscape-management change – including governance, green finance and commerce
Stakeholder facilitation and engagement, including ‘buy-in’, guidance, workshops, data collection and training

Measurement and reporting solutions

Technical advice and support on implementation of nature-based solutions, including biodiversity and/or climate mitigation on farms
Expertise in carbon removals and insetting – including ‘Within Value Chain Mitigation’ – helping organisations to navigate uncertainty
Technical alignment with reporting frameworks, many of which are complex and evolving
Development of monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) approaches to track impact – including identification of metrics and service providers

Our specialisms

Implementing sustainable sourcing strategies

3Keel combines practical experience of agriculture and land management with supply chain ‘know-how’ to help businesses develop and implement sustainable sourcing strategies.We provide support for planning and achieving environmental goals, such as regenerative agriculture transitions and Forest, Land and Agriculture (FLAG) and Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) targets.We help clients determine the right KPIs, develop a roadmap, gather suitable data, and engage with farmers and suppliers.

Driving landscape transformation

Landscapes are complex, multi-functional systems that organisations depend upon, and which present both significant risks and opportunities. Identifying these opportunities and challenges – and driving meaningful change – requires strategic collaboration, detailed understanding and targeted investment of resources.3Keel’s team provides expert guidance to help landscapes improve productivity, and remain resilient long term. We help clients assess business risks and develop effective transformation strategies. Our support includes identifying key partners and designing collaborative governance approaches to create platforms for effective action on the ground.Our team helps organisations to navigate funding opportunities, access markets – and mobilise investment to drive long-term, scalable impact.

Measuring & reporting impact

Good intentions don’t always translate into effective environmental outcomes. Many sustainability programmes lack a clear method of demonstrating impact. Robust monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) are essential for measuring progress.Our consultants provide impartial, technically rigorous advice. This is based on their detailed knowledge of relevant frameworks and impact-measurement methodologies, as well as their experience implementing a wide range of MRV approaches with different clients.Our support includes developing strategies for understanding impact, selecting appropriate metrics, identifying credible providers and technical solutions, and developing practical MRV approaches that ensure effective implementation and verifiable progress.

Explore our work for the John Lewis Partnership

Our leadership team

Catherine McCosker leads our Agriculture & Landscapes services, with support from Russell Ashfield and Emily Scott, and high-level expertise provided by 3Keel Director Tom Curtis.

The leadership team has many years’ experience working in corporate sustainability and offers industry-leading expertise on impact assessment and strategy development, combined with hands-on experience working on farms and in supply chains.

Catherine McCosker

Head of Agriculture and Landscapes

Catherine spent seven years as a farmer across mixed production systems. This experience brings boots-on-the-ground understanding that helps to inform her advice on supplier and producer engagement, regenerative agriculture, and the implementation of nature-based solutions in supply chains.

Russell Ashfield

Principal Consultant

With 30+ years working in the countryside and farming for a range of organisations including the National Trust, Russell has extensive practical knowledge of UK land management. His team develops innovative landscape-based solutions to benefit nature, climate and people.

Emily Scott

Principal Consultant, Team Lead

Emily is an expert in improving supply-chain resilience through analysis, target setting and strategy development. She previously worked in the sustainability and agriculture teams at Sainsbury’s, with a focus on sustainability communication, governance and reporting.

Tom Curtis

Director

A founding partner of 3Keel, Tom’s focus is on helping to make the connection between sustainable businesses and sustainable landscapes. Tom sits on the St. George’s House organising committee for Food & Farming Consultations.

How we helped Oatly with sustainable oat sourcing

Why work with us?

Clients turn to our Agriculture & Landscapes business unit because we are:

A diverse team with experience working on farms and in supply chains
Experts in engaging with farmers and supply chains, enabling us to help turn corporate strategy into effective action on the ground
Impartial, technically rigorous advisors, agnostic to different tools, methods and methodologies
Highly collaborative, working closely with our clients to build trust and solve problems

See our work for Nature Friendly Farming Network

Testimonials

See what others have to say

From design to execution, 3Keel’s approach has been robust but flexible enough to deal with change and challenge. Catherine has a rare talent for encouraging farmers to engage and collaborate, and that can make all the difference.

Will McManus

Food Sector SpecialistWRAP

I really value the support I receive from the team at 3Keel. Their work on assessing the risks and impacts of our agricultural supply chains is shaping our current and future sustainable sourcing strategy at Asahi UK.

Sam Goodenough

Sustainability ManagerAsahi UK

3Keel’s expertise and personal touch makes them a perfect partner to work with, especially when dealing with such an important group of stakeholders.

Chris Gerrard

Catchment and Biodiversity ManagerAnglian Water

3Keel’s insight has been invaluable and I’m sure part of the foundations of a long-term partnership.

Huw Thomas

Managing DirectorPuffin Produce