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Origin Green, Ireland’s national food and drink sustainability programme[1], recently published new procedures and guidelines, Pathways to Net Zero, based on the United Nation’s ‘Measure, Reduce, Compensate’ model. These guidelines make carbon emission targets mandatory for food and drink manufacturers who are Origin Green verified members, as the sector seeks to accelerate its contribution to the Irish Government’s Programme for Government’s aim of carbon neutrality by 2050.

This marks a significant shift for the Origin Green programme and will see member companies go beyond reductions of energy-related emissions, to include a more comprehensive assessment of their entire carbon footprint, including value chain emissions, which incorporates all indirect emissions (scope 3), associated with food manufacturing such as freight, travel.

In order to drive impact at a large scale, Bord Bia is initially introducing this mandatory carbon emission target to Origin Green members with a turnover greater than €50m. Companies must conduct baseline assessments in 2021 to determine emissions targets from 2022 onwards. These plans will be reviewed, monitored annually, and independently verified by international specialists Mabbett.

The ‘Pathways to Net Zero’ builds on several Origin Green initiatives already in place that require members to set and deliver on clear sustainability targets as part of their five-year sustainability plans with a specific focus on raw material sourcing, manufacturing process and social sustainability.

To further information on sustainable Irish food and drink exporters please contact your local Bord Bia office for more information and supplier connections.

[1] Almost 300 food and drink companies across Ireland are verified members of Origin Green, representing over 90% of food and drink exports. To date, companies have set over 2,400 sustainability targets, reaffirming the industry’s commitment to continuous improvement. Over a five-year period – the duration of a firm’s sustainability plan – food and drink manufacturers in Ireland delivered an 11% reduction in energy use per unit of output and a 17% reduction in water use per unit of output.

Bord Bia’s recently launched study, Seafood Futures: Four Marketplaces of Tomorrow explores what viable strategic choices will create the next decade of sustainable growth for Irish seafood exporters and their customers. We have combined strategic growth models with the future scenarios and drivers of demand, to really understand what the ‘Marketplaces of Tomorrow’ might look like; four key marketplaces emerged:

  1. Scale Biz will focus on consolidation and collaboration in the production of cheaper protein as an undifferentiated commodity.
  2. Smart Fish will feature a hybrid approach of smart pricing and product differentiation.
  3. Blue Ocean will leverage similar or adjacent resources to diversify into high value categories.
  4. Green Tales will see focused differentiation within the Sustainability marketplace.

For each marketplace, the study proposed five opportunity platforms, which serve as thought starters for innovation projects with key customers. By leveraging these platforms, suppliers and customers can better connect to the needs and demands of tomorrow’s consumers and work towards a sustainable and profitable future in the marketplaces of tomorrow. If you are interested in a full debrief of this study please contact local Bord Bia office.

From a shopper insights point of view, Bord Bia’s Covid Indicators, 2020, the effects of Covid-19 resulted in an increase in the purchase of beef. Shoppers sought to replace their restaurant experience and beef, especially steak had an important role in delivering this.

After 18 months of scratch cooking, shoppers are now looking for more variation and inspiration. In the UK, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium, shoppers have wanted a change from beef. Dutch and UK shoppers are purchasing more shellfish and turkey as an alternative and in Italy and Ireland, shoppers are looking for something easier to cook than beef. Hence across the board beef shoppers need more inspiration to maintain current purchase levels. Showing examples of what the final meal could look like and highlighting the USPs of Irish origin and traceability could no doubt help inspire shoppers.

Ireland’s grass-fed messaging can help offer the variation shoppers are looking for and convince shoppers to pay extra for their beef. We are seeing the beginnings of a post-Covid bounce in concern for sustainability. Shoppers claim they intend to cut back on beef consumption in the next three years, driven primarily by concerns over animal welfare and the environmental impact of beef production. Grass-fed beef is more likely to drive future purchase of beef compared to this time last year, with three in ten beef shoppers in Sweden, UK and Germany saying they would be more likely to buy beef if it’s grass-fed, something Irish beef can claim and verify at scale.

For more information, please get in touch with danny.bowles@bordbia.ie, or your local Bord Bia office.

Every month, Bord Bia interviews 375 grocery shoppers in key European markets: Ireland, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Sweden; in order to understand key dynamics around buying proteins. We have been collecting these insights since Autumn 2019, allowing us to reliably compare trends in consumption, purchase patterns and attitudes to the same period in the year previous. For more information, you can view the headline European report here.

Bord Bia is taking a fresh new look at ‘The Future of Frozen Food in the UK’ with the launch of a new Insight Study commissioned recently.

Frozen as a category had been going through significant change prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the pandemic has accelerated many of the pre-existing trends. The framework was developed to assist Irish frozen suppliers to innovate against four distinct areas of opportunity. This applies most directly in the UK but has implications for other markets of course.

 

Frozen Futures Framework

Developed throughout the research process, this framework was built, validated and refined so that it would be as applicable as possible to the wider frozen category, while also still having some sub-category focus.

The Frozen Futures Framework has four Futures, which are spread across different dimensions – from Surprising Value to Natural Goodness, and Flexible Friend to Permissible Pleasure.

The Framework focuses on four key spaces that can be tapped into by frozen suppliers and customers. These spaces are: Better Than You Think; Better For You; Better For the World; Better Choice. They highlight individual benefits associated with frozen food, with the aim of proving to consumers that they are making the right choice by choosing frozen.

Customers who would like to know more about how Ireland’s frozen suppliers are engaging with the future of the category can review the full report here or contact local Bord Bia office .

Origin Green is the world’s first and only national food industry-wide sustainability programme and nine years after its initial launch a recent study shows the commercial impact it is delivering for its members.

87% of respondents agreed that Origin Green is a catalyst towards continuous improvement of sustainability performance. In addition, 90% agree that Origin Green supported the putting in place of a framework to help measure and report sustainability performance. However, not only has Origin Green played a role in the development of sustainability performance but it has also resulted in 42% of respondents noting cost savings and a further, 22% of respondents attributed new revenue generation to their independently audited sustainability credentials.

For further information on sustainable Irish food and drink exporters please contact your local Bord Bia office for more information and supplier connections.

Bord Bia is co-hosting the prestigious World Steak Challenge again in Dublin this November. These awards represent an opportunity to recognise and showcase the leading producers and suppliers of excellent quality beef globally.

All of the steak entries will be assessed under tightly controlled conditions by a “blind” tasting panel in Dublin’s FIRE restaurant. This panel will consist of more than 50 independent international judges, including chefs, butchers and other meat experts. Based on their assessment, the best performing entries will be awarded gold, silver or bronze medals, across the respective categories which include World’s Best Sirloin, World’s Best Rib-Eye, World’s Best Fillet, Best Grain-fed and Best Grass-fed, alongside the overall World’s Best Steak title. Following judging in early November, competition winners will be announced at a hybrid event, and on the official WSC website.

In 2019, the event attracted a record number of entries from around the world: with competitors spanning 26 countries and 4 continents. Last time, Irish beef won over 75 medals, more than any other single country, including the “World’s Best Fillet Steak”. The awards, which are organised by William Reed Business Media, were postponed last year on account of the global Covid-19 pandemic. It is anticipated that Irish beef companies will again compete strongly for the medals.

Bord Bia is taking a fresh new look at ‘The Future of Frozen Food in the UK’ with the launch of a new Insight Study commissioned recently.

Frozen as a category had been going through significant change prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the pandemic has accelerated many of the pre-existing trends. The framework was developed to assist Irish frozen suppliers to innovate against four distinct areas of opportunity. This applies most directly in the UK but has implications for other markets of course.

Frozen Futures Framework

Developed throughout the research process, this framework was built, validated and refined so that it would be as applicable as possible to the wider frozen category, while also still having some sub-category focus.

The Frozen Futures Framework has four Futures, which are spread across different dimensions – from Surprising Value to Natural Goodness, and Flexible Friend to Permissible Pleasure.

The Framework focuses on four key spaces that can be tapped into by frozen suppliers and customers. These spaces are: Better Than You Think; Better For You; Better For the World; Better Choice. They highlight individual benefits associated with frozen food, with the aim of proving to consumers that they are making the right choice by choosing frozen.

Customers who would like to know more about how Ireland’s frozen suppliers are engaging with the future of the category can review the full report here or contact local Bord Bia office .

Origin Green, Ireland’s national food and drink sustainability programme[1], recently published new procedures and guidelines, Pathways to Net Zero, based on the United Nation’s ‘Measure, Reduce, Compensate’ model. These guidelines make carbon emission targets mandatory for food and drink manufacturers who are Origin Green verified members, as the sector seeks to accelerate its contribution to the Irish Government’s Programme for Government’s aim of carbon neutrality by 2050.

This marks a significant shift for the Origin Green programme and will see member companies go beyond reductions of energy-related emissions, to include a more comprehensive assessment of their entire carbon footprint, including value chain emissions, which incorporates all indirect emissions (scope 3), associated with food manufacturing such as freight, travel.

In order to drive impact at a large scale, Bord Bia is initially introducing this mandatory carbon emission target to Origin Green members with a turnover greater than €50m. Companies must conduct baseline assessments in 2021 to determine emissions targets from 2022 onwards. These plans will be reviewed, monitored annually, and independently verified by international specialists Mabbett.

The ‘Pathways to Net Zero’ builds on several Origin Green initiatives already in place that require members to set and deliver on clear sustainability targets as part of their five-year sustainability plans with a specific focus on raw material sourcing, manufacturing process and social sustainability.

To further information on sustainable Irish food and drink exporters please contact your local Bord Bia office for more information and supplier connections.

[1] Almost 300 food and drink companies across Ireland are verified members of Origin Green, representing over 90% of food and drink exports. To date, companies have set over 2,400 sustainability targets, reaffirming the industry’s commitment to continuous improvement. Over a five-year period – the duration of a firm’s sustainability plan – food and drink manufacturers in Ireland delivered an 11% reduction in energy use per unit of output and a 17% reduction in water use per unit of output.

From a shopper insights point of view, Bord Bia’s Covid Indicators, 2020, the effects of Covid-19 resulted in an increase in the purchase of beef. Shoppers sought to replace their restaurant experience and beef, especially steak had an important role in delivering this.

After 18 months of scratch cooking, shoppers are now looking for more variation and inspiration. In the UK, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium, shoppers have wanted a change from beef. Dutch and UK shoppers are purchasing more shellfish and turkey as an alternative and in Italy and Ireland, shoppers are looking for something easier to cook than beef. Hence across the board beef shoppers need more inspiration to maintain current purchase levels. Showing examples of what the final meal could look like and highlighting the USPs of Irish origin and traceability could no doubt help inspire shoppers.

Ireland’s grass-fed messaging can help offer the variation shoppers are looking for and convince shoppers to pay extra for their beef. We are seeing the beginnings of a post-Covid bounce in concern for sustainability. Shoppers claim they intend to cut back on beef consumption in the next three years, driven primarily by concerns over animal welfare and the environmental impact of beef production. Grass-fed beef is more likely to drive future purchase of beef compared to this time last year, with three in ten beef shoppers in Sweden, UK and Germany saying they would be more likely to buy beef if it’s grass-fed, something Irish beef can claim and verify at scale.

For more information, please get in touch with danny.bowles@bordbia.ie, or your local Bord Bia office.

Every month, Bord Bia interviews 375 grocery shoppers in key European markets: Ireland, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Sweden; in order to understand key dynamics around buying proteins. We have been collecting these insights since Autumn 2019, allowing us to reliably compare trends in consumption, purchase patterns and attitudes to the same period in the year previous. For more information, you can view the headline European report here.

As we emerge from an extremely challenging year, I am so proud to see how our Origin Green members have continued to innovate and develop their sustainability business plans, offering consumers more sustainable and locally produced food and drink products.

 

Origin Green is Ireland’s food and drink sustainability programme, and drives sustainability improvements across the entire supply chain from farmers to manufacturers, to foodservice and retailers. Collaboration and partnership is at the heart of what we do in Ireland, and it is critical to acting and developing sustainably – recognized in #17 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. As of now, Origin Green aligns with 15 of the 17 SDGs, and to further support this, Bord Bia became a United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) member in June of 2018.

 

Presently, we are almost six years on from the agreement of SDGs by UN Member States in 2015 and now have nine years remaining to achieve our ambitious targets and end issues such as hunger and inequality, while protecting our planet from climate change. SDG #17, Partnership for the Goal, reiterates the importance of coming together to implement sustainable development. Partnership has always been part of the Irish story of food production, small family farms meant and still mean that neighbours help one another – we even have a name in the Irish language for this ‘meitheal’ and although there is no direct translation, the meaning is a co-operative or a team of mutually supporting workers.

 

Origin Green puts a framework behind our farming systems: As a country with family farming traditions and lush green pastures, Ireland has a history of being recognised as sustainable, however, Origin Green is striving to create proof-points behind that, to put a systematic framework in place to prove that food is produced sustainably here. The programme does just that, Origin Green connects all parts of the supply chain; 53,000 farms, 324 Irish food producers (representing over 90% of our exports) the government and international NGOs, to prove and improve the sustainability of the food they produce to meet the evolving needs of global customers and consumers. Origin Green shows that Irish food and drink producers have a sustainability plan, that they are driving change, that they are making improvements, and that it is independently verified. Our member companies have set over 2,400 sustainability targets. Throughout the country, over 100 independent auditors undertake 650 weekly assessments on farm as part of our Sustainable Assurance Schemes. In addition to quality measures, the sustainability criteria being measured and monitored are greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity, water use, energy efficiency, soil management and socio-economic factors.

 

The commitment of our members to Origin Green shows that there is a national movement. The challenge for us and for our members is to continue to focus on driving those proof-points and maintaining our reputation as a leader of sustainability. The programme continues to play a pivotal role in evolving the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals within the Irish food and drink industry.

 

We share our Origin Green story with the world: We can demonstrate the alignment of the Origin Green Charter now with 15 of the 17 SDGs. We are going further by creating a cohort of future leaders in sustainability – this year will see the 50th Origin Green Ambassador appointed as part of our Talent Academy. Collectively these future leaders have undertaken over 100 projects with companies in 14 countries including the US, China, UAE and Europe. Origin Green and what we are doing in Ireland continues to evolve, most recently establishing the world’s first national grass-fed standard independently verifying the proportion of grass in our dairy and beef herds’ diet.

 

As we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic and realise the realities of climate and biodiversity crises, it is critical that we all come together as a planet to drive the sustainability agenda forward. With the UN Food Systems Summit taking place this July, it is vital that food producers recognise the role we play in ensuring our food systems develop better production systems, employment conditions, and drive change for sustainability. Bord Bia’s ongoing development and evolution of the Origin Green programme showcases our steadfast commitment to promoting the delivery of the SDGs within the Irish food and drink industry.

 

For more information visit: www.origingreen.ie

 

Author: Deirdre Ryan

Deirdre Ryan holds an MSc in Business Sustainability, an MBS in International Business from UCD Smurfit Graduate School, and a degree in International Commerce with Italian from University College Dublin. She is also an Irish Olympian; she competed in the high jump at the London 2012 Olympics.

Prior to her appointment in Bord Bia, Deirdre was Head of Corporate Social Responsibility for Lidl Ireland & Northern Ireland, where she led the development and implementation of their sustainability strategy. From 2013 to 2015, as part of Bord Bia’s Origin Green Ambassador programme, Deirdre was responsible for building trade awareness globally for the sustainability credentials of Irish food and drink producers.