Introducing LIFE SEED:
Collect once, reuse across the chain

Growers often receive overlapping requests for the same sustainability information. LIFE SEED's project baseline found many individual fields repeated five to ten times across different buyers and certifiers. Requests also use different formats, which makes reuse across systems harder.

LIFE SEED aims to reduce that duplication. We're building a shared data structure so growers enter the same sustainability information less often and buyers receive more consistent data.

LIFE SEED is a multi-year project starting in 2026, co-funded by the LIFE Programme of the European Union. Simvia coordinates it, alongside five partners in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

This article is the project's introduction. We'll update it as the work progresses.

What is LIFE SEED?

SEED stands for Scalable European infrastructure for Environmental Due diligence and compliance. The short version: one questionnaire, one set of definitions, and connections to the systems that already hold verified farm data.

LIFE SEED at a glance

Programme: LIFE, Circular Economy and Quality of Life sub-programme

Duration: Multi-year, starting in 2026

Total budget: Approximately €1.9 million

Coordinator: Simvia BV

Partners: Bakker Barendrecht, Greenyard, Gemüsering, Vogelaar Vredehof, Mérieux NutriSciences – Blonk

Pilot countries: Netherlands, Belgium, Germany

Sector: Fresh fruit and vegetables

Project governance exists to keep this on track toward its goals, not just to exist. A Steering Board, with one representative per partner, meets regularly to track progress and resolve decisions. An external Stakeholder and Expert Group, independent of the partners building this, reviews the design as the work progresses, to keep the project accountable to outside scrutiny, not only its own.

Why this matters across the chain

The same fragmented process creates extra work on both sides of the chain.

Our platform is already used by more than 250 traders and processors. Growers and producer organisations often provide the same certificates and figures in different formats. Buyers then receive fragmented spreadsheets and PDFs that are difficult to compare, aggregate or check. Both sides spend time on work the current process repeats.

Our partners work with the same challenge. Bakker Barendrecht, Greenyard, Gemüsering and Vogelaar Vredehof send and receive these requests every day. The duplication is the starting condition LIFE SEED is designed to address. LIFE funding lets the partners test a shared approach at a scale none could reach alone.

What LIFE SEED will build

We're building this around four qualities the data needs to have: structured, trustworthy, actionable, and reusable.

Structured. A shared data structure for carbon, biodiversity and social indicators, with defined units, system boundaries and calculation rules. Relevant environmental indicators align with the EU Product Environmental Footprint method and draw on the FreshProducePEFCR, an industry methodology developed as far as possible in alignment with PEF guidance.

Trustworthy. Real-time checks catch implausible entries as a grower fills in the form, not after submission, so problems get caught while they can still be fixed easily, with a constructive correction rather than a rejection. The underlying calculation itself comes from Blonk, a specialist life-cycle-assessment consultancy, whose engine draws on verified scientific databases to calculate carbon and water footprints. That means the numbers behind every result are backed by an established, independent methodology, not a black box.

Actionable. Once collected, this data doesn't sit in isolation. It becomes available alongside a supplier's other compliance data inside Simvia, building one complete picture of each supplier and their product supply chain. That's what turns a data point into something a buyer can actually act on, for example using it to give farmers direct feedback on where they stand and what to improve.

Reusable. The data model is built to expand, covering CSDDD and other relevant legislation, alongside existing certification requirements, over time. Every Simvia user works from the same standardised model to request impact data. That means a supplier facing requests from multiple buyers can reuse what they've already provided, rather than starting over with each new request.

Feedback that reaches the farm.

Reporting shouldn't be a dead end. We aim to help farmers turn their own data into insight, understanding where they stand today, and using that to take increasingly effective action on every measured indicator over time, not just carbon."

This drops the flower strip example and the "comparable farms" benchmarking detail, since neither is something we can point to today. The new version states the aim without implying a specific mechanism already exists.

Six partners across the fresh produce chain

Six organisations, bringing together expertise from across the fresh produce supply chain.

• Simvia (Netherlands), coordinator. Compliance and sustainability data platform for agri-food supply chains. Leads project management and builds the platform the pilots run on.

• Bakker Barendrecht (Netherlands). One of the country's largest fresh produce companies, connecting thousands of growers to Dutch and international retail. Leads the monitoring of socio-economic impacts.

• Greenyard (Belgium). One of Europe's leading fresh produce companies. Its European footprint is central to testing whether the model transfers beyond the pilot countries.

• Gemüsering (Germany). One of Germany's largest fresh produce traders, running vertically integrated chains into domestic and EU-wide retail. Anchors the German pilot.

• Vogelaar Vredehof (Netherlands). A top-fruit specialist in apples and pears. Brings a second crop type and production system into the pilots. That's how we test whether the data structure holds up beyond one commodity.

• Mérieux NutriSciences – Blonk (Netherlands). Sustainability consultancy and research group specialising in agricultural life cycle assessment and carbon footprinting. Leads the environmental KPI methodology and supports alignment with relevant EU footprinting methods.

What the pilots aim to achieve

Within the pilot supply chains, the project targets:

• 50% fewer duplicate data requests at farm level, and 30% less time per reporting cycle for buyers.

• A 10% reduction in carbon footprint intensity, in kg CO₂e per kg of product at farm gate, against a baseline set at the start.

• A 12% increase in an aggregate biodiversity index covering habitat share, crop diversity and non-productive land. We should be straightforward about this one. Biodiversity pilots haven't run yet, so it's an evidence-based projection to be validated during the project rather than a result we already hold.

• More than 1,000 farms and suppliers taking part by the end, starting from around 200 in the first phase.

All of it is measured against baselines set at the start, using one method across every partner and country. Using different methods makes sustainability data harder to compare. SEED uses one consistent approach across the pilots.

Project timeline

The schedule below is indicative and will be confirmed once the grant agreement is signed.

• 2026. Project starts. Governance set up, the harmonised data structure drafted with all partners, baselines and monitoring framework defined.

• 2027. Planned first live data collection with growers. First connections to certification schemes and data sources go live. Pilots begin in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

• 2028. Automated checks running in live chains. Feedback to farms and benchmarking for buyers in operation. Mid-project review.

• Towards the end of the project. Pilots scaled beyond 1,000 farms and suppliers. Replication toolkit published. Final results and public summary report.

Following the project

We'll publish updates, outputs and results as the project runs, including the public summary report at the end. If you'd like to follow along, or if you're a grower, buyer or certification body interested in taking part in the pilots, get in touch.

Co-funded by the European Union

LIFE SEED is co-funded by the LIFE Programme of the European Union.

Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.