The work that the Context Network has been doing for us in the first phase of the Climate project has been very helpful in crystallising some of the elements of what our Roadmap should really look like.
Context interviewed a broad range of our members and other industry stakeholders from different continents to discuss what they were all doing in terms of climate commitments and the actions they were planning in order to meet them. In doing so, they also gauged those members' views on the role that GRSB could be playing to help our members.
These insights are very useful to us as they help guide the direction of our work and make sure that we are delivering value to members. The message that comes through clearly is that many members are looking for alignment in the area of climate reporting, and see GRSB as being the right place to help bring consensus on how it is done.
It’s also clear that a lot of work has already been done that we could make use of. There were four areas in which members saw a valuable role for GRSB:
- Representing stakeholders’ voices
- Development of specific principles and criteria related to reporting
- Standardising datasets and inputs to them, and finally
- Providing resources and education to stakeholders (sharing the expertise of the entire network).
This provides us with some clear guidance in the Climate sphere as to what the next phases of that Roadmap project should look like.
I think that a very similar approach works for each of our Goals / Working groups. Just as member organisations have been looking for solutions to reporting against their climate commitments, so have they for Nature Positive Production. So a roadmap for our Nature Positive goal could also include defining the principles and criteria that apply to implementing and reporting on that goal, as well as collating the experiences of our entire network on how they are already working on it, and mapping incentives that help drive uptake.
For animal health and welfare we also need principles and criteria on the implementation and measurement of improvements, and though we already know some of the areas we would like to work on, we need a clearer picture of the differences that exist between regions. So, once again, mapping initiatives and sharing learnings and experience is important, including understanding more about what the drivers or bottlenecks are to the adoption of better health and welfare practices.
When we talk about Principles and Criteria here, we are talking mainly about the principles involved in measuring and reporting on progress, but just as we have done for the People and Community Goal this year, it is a good moment and overdue to review our Principles and Criteria for Sustainable Beef at the same time, to ensure that they are up to date and reflect today’s realities.
For each of the goals / working groups, the roadmap so far involves conducting a review of existing solutions and tools already in use, including financial opportunities, developing principles and criteria to guide measuring and reporting and emphasising actions that members can be taking immediately to make progress.
