Sustainability group creates beef carbon footprint

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. – The scientific advisory council for the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB) launched the beef carbon footprint guideline to allow for consistency in calculating the carbon footprint of beef cattle production.

GRSB stated that Blonk Consultants assisted in developing the guideline, advising on the methodology. Other financial support came from McDonald’s Corp. and DSM.

“A key part of GRSB’s mission is to ensure transparency when it comes to evaluating and reporting key sustainability metrics,” said Ruaraidh Petre, executive director of the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef.

However, to date, the global beef carbon footprint has been challenging to track and report effectively.

The new beef carbon footprint guideline was developed based on the UN FAO’s Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance Partnership (LEAP) guidance. Some elements in the guideline include quantifying emissions from cradle to farm gate or cradle to processing gate. Next, it facilitates monitoring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through time for a specific system and identify the main drivers for GHG emissions in the beef cattle life cycle.

The guideline also allowsfor comparisons in the context of the same study and complement the dairy sector’s LCA work.

“Launching this new guideline will help create consistency in the global beef sector,” Petre said. “There is growing momentum in the industry to protect and nurture the earth’s natural resources and having a clearer carbon footprint guideline will allow us to do this better than ever before.”

More information about the guidelines is available at the link here.