Building a Credible Sustainability Story for California Walnuts Starts With Data
A data-backed approach to understanding the impact of walnut growing and handling today.
Photo Credit: California Walnut Commission
If your story isn’t supported by your data, it will be defined by someone else.
As of March 31, the California Walnut Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) survey is officially underway. For the California walnut industry, this represents a critical step toward building the kind of data-backed sustainability story that buyers and markets increasingly expect.
California Walnuts partnered with Measure to Improve and UC Davis to develop an LCA process that is practical, aligned with real operations, and produces usable, credible data.
What the LCA Means for the Industry
The LCA creates a foundation the industry can use to respond to buyer questions with clarity. An LCA describes the environmental footprint of a product across its lifecycle, from nursery through processing.
For California walnuts, this means building a clear, data-backed picture of how walnuts are grown, handled, and brought to market today using real data from California operations.
This LCA Is:
A tool to support market access and buyer conversations
A way for the industry to tell its story with confidence
A foundation for future insights
This LCA Is Not:
Evaluating or ranking individual operations
A regulatory or enforcement tool
Public reporting of individual data
Why This LCA Matters Now
Buyers, retailers, and global markets are asking more of agriculture than ever before, and they are increasingly making decisions based on that information.
At the same time, the industry is navigating tight margins, rising costs, and increasing pressure to respond to complex and evolving requests.
The LCA gives the California walnut industry the ability to respond with confidence, using credible, California-specific data, differentiating California walnuts in a competitive global market.
Built With the Industry, For the Industry
The LCA will bring together data across the supply chain, from growers to processors. Rather than focusing on individual data points, aggregated data from across the industry will tell a powerful, holistic story.
Over the past several months, we’ve worked with California Walnuts and UC Davis, engaging handlers across the state through virtual and in-person meetings to gather feedback and refine the approach. With their help, we’ve developed a survey designed to collect the data needed while respecting the time it takes to participate
This approach aligns directly with how we work at Measure to Improve: collaborating with the industry to build solutions that reflect real operations, not applying off-the-shelf sustainability frameworks that don't reflect reality.
Measure to Improve’s Role
We are proud to partner with the California Walnuts and UC Davis on this effort.
Our role is to support the industry by:
Keeping this process practical and grounded in real operations
Supporting growers and handlers as they navigate participation
We are here to help this industry move forward with confidence.
Learn More & Get Involved
The California walnut industry has an opportunity to lead, but that only happens if the story is built on real data from the people growing and producing it.
To participate, complete the survey here.
If you have questions about the LCA, what participation looks like, or how this connects to your operation, reach out to LCA@measuretoimprovellc.com or review the FAQ on the California Walnuts website.
Participation matters. The strength of this story depends on it.