Advanced biodiversity impact methodology for French meat + livestock association

Biodiversity and soil health are the very foundation of a resilient food system, and indeed, a stable planet. However, most agricultural production models are sending biodiversity into sharp decline across the world. In 2020, world leaders are gathering in Kunming with a shared ambition: to create a “Paris Agreement” to urgently address the biodiversity crisis. 

As nations seek to align on global action needed, businesses too are prioritizing regenerative practices and production models that reverse the trend. To quantify, manage and track progress on these efforts, companies need a shared way to measure and benchmark biodiversity impacts. 

“The french livestock and meat industry is largely based on grassland farming. This system has an important impact on biodiversity and soil health, including carbon sequestration,” affirms Caroline Guinot, Head of the Sustainability Committee at Interbev. “But actors across the supply chain lack a way to measure and track their actual practices and progress toward addressing these impacts. Quantis’ expertise in biodiversity and experience in creating accounting methodologies make them a valuable partner in our project to help French meat companies take urgent action.”

Today’s leading lifecycle assessments (LCA) have a critical gap: they don’t include robust biodiversity indicators. This is because LCAs are typically computed on a global level, whereas biodiversity measurements are extremely localized. Thanks to newly released environmental data on biodiversity in France’s meat production, Quantis is able to develop a much more robust and tailored methodology for the industry. 

Find out more about this project through this press release (in French).