Consumer Perceptions of Beef Sustainability

Consumer perceptions are key to communicating advancement in beef sustainability, and the CRSB completed its first consumer research project in 2018. The purpose of the project was to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of the logos and claims developed by the CRSB, and to determine what improvements were required for maximum consumer impact.

The CRSB launched the Certified Sustainable Beef Framework in December 2017. The Framework consists of sustainability standards supported by a comprehensive certification program that:

demonstrates sustainability in beef production and processing;
supports the retail and foodservice industry to meet sustainable sourcing commitments, and
enables consumers to purchase sustainably sourced beef.
The goals of the consumer research were twofold:

To evaluate a series of logo options for preference and how they resonate with respect to sustainability.
To gather insight and opinions about the impact of sustainability claims to be used with the CRSB Certified logo to ensure clear, concise and transparent messaging.


CRSB worked with Hill & Knowlton Associates to carry out the research. To fulfill the objectives, the project was conducted in three stages:

Key Stakeholder Interviews with CRSB members from across the beef value chain to gather industry feedback on draft logos and claims. These informed development of stage 2.
Online survey with with a representative sample of 1,544 Canadians. The survey evaluated general attitudes and opinions about beef sustainability and evaluated a series of proposed logos and claims for how they resonated with, and were understood by, Canadian consumers.
Focus Groups (~50 people) were used to dive deeper into consumer insights related to the logo, claims and communication about beef sustainability.
The research informed recommendations of the CRSB Communications and Marketing Committee to CRSB Council, which resulted in the selection of the CRSB’s Framework Trademark, Certification Mark, a Mass Balance Certification Mark, and text claims that support messaging for the Certified Sustainable Beef Framework.