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US-RSPE announces sustainability reporting framework

The U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Poultry and Eggs has released its sustainability reporting framework for the full U.S. supply chains for chicken, turkey, and eggs.

Executive Director Ryan Bennett says it will help create a clearer picture of the sustainability of U.S. poultry and how the products are produced.

“The roundtable framework metrics will allow organizations to provide transparent reporting on their sustainability while also at the same time allowing them to build plans to improve,” he says.

He tells Brownfield about short- and long-term goals.

“In the near-term we’re going to go through a public comment period where we’ll get feedback from people outside of our membership and assess that,” he says. “In the future we’re hoping to create a full reporting mechanism which allows people to see where they’re at on sustainability in 13 priority areas that our members have identified, which will show them where they need to most focus their time to improve. It will allow the supply chain to do the same thing at an aggregate level, which would allow us to form an action plan as a full supply chain.”

Bennett says there was a need to bring the full value chain together “to allow farmers to tell their story but also equip their customer at the integrator or processor level, for example, to tell their individual story, which also then allows a retail or food service company to tell their story, which ultimately would make it to the end customer.”

Five constituency groups represented within the multi-stakeholder initiative are growers and producers, integrators and processors, allied industry, retail and food service, and civil society and non-governmental organizations.

US-RSPE announced plans for the framework in 2019. Three full U.S. supply chain pilots were completed with input from several companies including Butterball, Peco Foods, Tyson Foods, McDonald’s Corporation, and more. The pilot companies tested the framework’s metrics to ensure they were effective and able to be implemented ahead of the full launch to the industry early next year.

In addition to providing individual reports, the organization will report on the performance of the full supply chains. Bennett says sustainability successes start with measurement and are improved by investing in work that improves sustainability for poultry, the planet, and its people.

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Audio: Ryan Bennett