Celebrating 10 years of beef sustainability collaboration

Founded in 2014, the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (CRSB) market it’s 10-year anniversary in 2024, celebrating many important milestones over its first decade. The CRSB’s collaborative approach is a model followed by others and has helped to establish our Canadian beef sector as a leader in sustainability.

The launch of the 2024 National Beef Sustainability Assessment (NBSA) and Strategy was a key highlight—the first progress report against our 2014 baseline—measuring farm-to-fork sustainability performance and progress of the entire beef production system. A strategic nationwide public relations plan, specifically highlighting the 15 per cent carbon footprint reduction per kg of beef (boneless and consumed) from 2014 to 2021, resulted in a reach of 228 million! The assessment also shows that carbon storage and biodiversity are part of the Canadian beef story: land used for beef production stores an estimated 1.9 billion tonnes of soil organic carbon and contributes 74 per cent of critical habitat that wildlife need for reproduction, when all of Canada’s crop and pastureland is considered. Consumer research also tells us that Canadians believe this progress is happening at a good pace, and they like when we can measure our performance against other jurisdictions.

“Canada’s agri-food system is respected worldwide, and I am proud of the outstanding leadership the Canadian beef industry has demonstrated in advancing sustainability—regionally, nationally and on the international stage,” says Ryan Beierbach, CRSB Chair.

The NBSA was featured as a communication success story at the Global Conference for Sustainable Beef in Uruguay in October 2024, along with colleagues from Australia and Brazil. Watch for a digital public campaign—a partnership between CRSB, Canada Beef and the Public and Stakeholder Engagement program—using these metrics this spring.

The CRSB Certified program continues to be a priority. We recognize the time and effort of ranchers and farmers across the country to get certified, and the financial incentives for CRSB Certified producers help demonstrate the value of certification, notably from Farm Credit Canada, Cargill and its customers. Visit crsb.ca to learn more, and reach out anytime if you have questions at info@crsb.ca.

This article was first published in Volume 5 Issue 1 of ABP Magazine (February 2025). Watch for more digital content from the magazine on ABP Daily.