By – Brenna Grant, Executive Director CanFax Services
Le Sustainability Strategy was created in 2016 to provide a roadmap of goals and activities for the beef supply chain to work towards. The strategy consists of ten goals with action items for each of them. In January 2020, the interim report showed that 86% of the environmental, 75% of the social and 83% of the economic action items completed or in progress. This was great progress!
If 100% of the activities were completed at the halfway mark it would indicate that the goals set were not ambitious enough. This Interim Report provides an opportunity to re-focus efforts to ensure all goals and activities are fully completed by 2023, in time for the next full National Beef Sustainability Assessment. Some areas that can use more partnerships and collaboration include: communicating the role of technology and innovation in relation to the environmental, social and economic benefits to the beef industry; research and adoption of packaging that enhances product life and reduces food waste; dialogue regarding how label messaging can enable reductions in food waste; and further awareness of the Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Beef Cattle.
As the National Beef Sustainability Assessment is currently being updated, we are taking stock of how the gaps identified in the interim report have been addressed. Once the NSBA is complete an updated Sustainability Strategy will be created.
The main tool for monitoring progress against those goals is the Projects Inventory. The projects inventory is currently open for submissions from both members and non-members until May 31st at https://crsb.ca/project-inventory-survey/. If you have been working on a project that contributes to the Sustainability Strategy, we would encourage you to submit.
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