Sustainability Initiatives

Fairfood Sustainability Solutions

The number of sustainability initiatives applicable to the agro-food sector is constantly increasing. This is a positive development, but it also has a downside: consumers as well as producers might easily get confused about the meaning, value, relevance and credibility of these different initiatives. Food companies and retailers might also encounter difficulties in engaging or implementing such initiatives. Fairfood International aims to provide well-informed advice to these groups on the various sustainability initiatives that we research.

Sustainability initiatives

There are different types of initiatives, each of which can be valuable depending on the context. Some initiatives focus on single issues (e.g. deforestation, market access, corruption, gender-discrimination), or on specific production chains (tea, fruit, soy, coffee, cocoa, spices), while others cover a broad sustainability agenda or a variety of products. At Fairfood, we have categorised the existing initiatives as follows:

• certification labels;
• subject-specific initiatives;
• corporate programs;
• roundtables and platforms;
• chain partnerships

Fairfood Sustainability Solutions

Through desk research and contact with international experts and organisations, Fairfood identifies and assesses sustainability initiatives some of which are eventually regarded as sustainability solutions.

Fairfood defines sustainability solutions as initiatives that are successful in addressing major social, environmental and economic sustainability issues in agro-food production, sourcing, processing or supply.

For each initiative assessed, Fairfood uses a comprehensive assessment checklist. Based on this assessment, Fairfood is able to give advice and information to food companies about existing sustainability solutions available in their sector or supply chain. This information is documented and updated regularly by Fairfood’s research department in reports, briefs and in overviews on our website.

Implementation partners

Besides our research work, Fairfood also assists food and beverage companies in finding a suitable implementation partner that would work with them to increase the sustainability of their production and supply chains. We put a lot of effort into creating an active network of international experts, consultancies and organisations all over the world. These implementation partners have the specific knowledge and expertise that can be applied to making production chains more fair, transparent and sustainable. In the end, however, the responsibility for increasing sustainability remains with the food company.

Contact

To obtain more details about Fairfood’s overview of solutions, implementation partners or the criteria used to assess solutions, please contact Anselm Iwundu. Food and beverage companies and suppliers who would like to obtain more information or advice on utilising Fairfood International’s sustainability solutions, please contact your current account manager at Fairfood. If you do not have an account manager yet, you can contact Ioan Nemes (Director Advocacy).