Hellon and Yara paid French farmers for greener rapeseed through a biofuel buyer

Fast Company's 2022 Innovation by Design coverage describes how service design agency Hellon set out to make low-carbon farming profitable in France. Farmers were under pressure to meet the EU's net-zero goal for 2050 but had no incentive to switch to greener, pricier fertilizer. Yara, a crop nutrition company, wanted to sell it. A biofuel processor had the plant to scale but not enough sustainable biomass.

Hellon and Yara built a circular value chain, called Objectif CoolZa, around those three parties. Hellon designed a browser-based emissions calculator, built by Yara, that measures a farmer's carbon footprint and gives a rating. Farmers use Yara's fertilizer, lower their footprint, and receive a premium from the biofuel processor, which pays them to collect the greener crops and field waste.

In 2021 a pilot ran for a full farming cycle with 25 French rapeseed farmers across 500 hectares. They cut 15 percent of their CO2 and raised profits by 4.7 percent after covering the more expensive fertilizer, according to Fast Company. Hellon was also working on a machine-learning simulator to show the effect of choices like watering, which it said could not be functional before 2024.

Each party wanted greener farming but could not scale alone.

The biofuel buyer's need for biomass turns green crops into something it will pay extra for.

The calculator makes a farmer's footprint measurable, so the premium rests on a number.

A single loop leaves close to no waste, as the field waste feeds the processor.

When a sustainable option costs more, look for a third party who needs its output and will pay for it.

Fast Company reported the pilot results only, with a simulator still planned and no wider rollout figures. Hellon's founding partner Timo Patiala described it as creating a business for low-carbon farming where none had made sense before.