Austria currently lacks methods and procedures for calculating sustainability indicators at the farm level that are consistent with established indicators (e.g. national greenhouse gas inventory, LGR) in aggregated form. Such methods would be suitable for supplementing the Green Report with sustainability indicators with the help of farms that voluntarily keep accounts. To date, the Green Report has only reported on the economic performance indicators of the various types of farms. The extent to which important environmental indicators (e.g. greenhouse gas emissions) have changed is not yet known at the level of farms that are representative of the entire sector. In addition to ecological sustainability, the project will also take into account the two other dimensions of sustainability: economic and social sustainability.
Objectives and research questions
The pilot project aims to develop methods and procedures to enable ongoing reporting on sustainability developments in the Green Report. The focus is on conceptual work.
Since the calculations are carried out at the individual farm level, there is an additional benefit: if the existing gaps in knowledge are closed by new methods and approaches, farm-specific evaluations with regard to sustainability indicators can also be carried out for all or at least most farms in Austria. These should also be able to be evaluated on a regional basis.
The five content-related objectives of the project are:
Objective 1: Development of representative flat-rate values for GHG emissions for Austria's most important agricultural goods.
Objective 2: Calculation of farm-specific sustainability indicators for the categories A) gross value added, B) labour and C) GHG emissions balances.
Objective 3: Development of concepts a) for the efficient updating of sustainability indicators in order to produce an annually updated report, and b) for a protocol for multiple data use and the integration of the necessary digital resources.
Objective 4: To measure sustainability comprehensively, it is not enough to determine indicators such as value added and greenhouse gas emissions. The project therefore aims to develop a concept for further indicators for sustainability monitoring (e.g. gender index, land use changes, biodiversity, etc.).
Objective 5: Dissemination of (interim) results during and after completion of the project, not only in the form of reports, but also in the context of stakeholder information events.
Methods and data
- BAB is participating in the project as a consortium partner and is responsible for managing selected work packages:
WP1 (led by WIFO): Support for the development of representative flat-rate values for GHG emissions for Austria's most important agricultural goods through literature research and stakeholder dialogues. - WP2 (led by BAB for areas A & B; led by WIFO for area C): Calculation of farm-specific sustainability indicators for A) gross value added and B) labour, and collaboration on the calculation of C) GHG emission balances. Methods of data collection and processing are researched, analysed and developed.
- WP3 (led by BAB): Concept development a) for the aggregation of farm sustainability indicators from WP2 at the national level; b) for the ongoing updating of national sustainability indicators, i.e. also for years in which no agricultural structure survey is conducted; c) for the use of existing data from agricultural holdings for the calculation of indicators at individual farm and national level; d) for the integration of the necessary digital resources from various areas of public administration and private data sources.
- WP4 (led by WIFO): Collaboration in the development of concepts for additional indicators for sustainability monitoring (e.g. gender index, land use changes, biodiversity, etc.)
- WP5 (led by WIFO): Collaboration in the dissemination of results during and after the project period.
Planned work in 2026
In 2026, most of the project implementation will take place in WPs 1-4. WP5 will largely be carried out in 2027.
Schedule
Project start: 1 December 2025
Project end: 1 May 2027
DaFNE Project 102211 under the direction of WIFO
