*This post was updated on October 28 to include the full report.
On the occasion of the 75th Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 75), at a time of great disruption in the world, the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition (BCFN) together with the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), the Santa Chiara Lab – University of Siena (SCL) and the Columbia Center for Sustainable Investment (CCSI) published the latest Fixing the Business of Food 2020 Report – How to align the agri-food sector with the SDGs.
A Critical Cross-Sector Dialogue to Re-Strategize Food Businesses took place online on September 22nd (see full recordinghere) to discuss how businesses and investors can contribute to more sustainable food systems that align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. Further exacerbated by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity and malnutrition continue to be aggravated by the current social, environmental, and economic scenarios. The sustainability of our food systems is vital for the health of people and our planet.
This event discussed solutions to support the private sector in the transition towards sustainable agri-food systems. It included twelve panelists, moderated by Barbara Buchner, Global Managing Director of the Climate Policy Initiative. Below are some highlights from our speakers.
Mariangela Zappia, Permanent Representative at the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations in New York gave a keynote speech stating that Italy would support the creation of a sustainability related disclosure framework for both public and private investments, which would increase transparency of available resources and how they are used in terms of SDG’s implementation.
Guido Barilla, Chairman of the Barilla Group and Barilla Foundation urged agri-food businesses to imperatively move towards reaching the SDGS and mentioned that a huge factor in fixing the food system lies within the suppliers. “Contracting ethical suppliers who have quality products, allow us to produce in a much more sustainable way.”
These speeches were followed by a conversation between Jeffrey Sachs, President of SDSN, Alzbeta Klein, Director and Global Head of Climate Business at the International Finance Corporation, and Alexandra Liftman, Global Environmental Executive at the Bank of America, about resetting the food industry and finance agendas to reach the SDGs. Professor Sachs mentioned that “anyone that looks at a map knows that the Amazon is on fire and being deforested at record rates. We need clarity and metrics so governments and businesses can be aligned towards the future. If we get these specifics, we can provide solutions.” Ms. Klein emphasized the need to focus on land use and food waste.
Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice President at the European Commission, mentioned in his keynote address the European Farm to Fork strategy and emphasized the need to ensure we do not lose biodiversity since our forests are already being impacted by climate change.
In a roundtable discussion with Pedro Moura Costa, Co- Founder and President of the BVRio Environmental Exchange, Justine Leigh-Bell, Deputy CEO & Director of Market Development at the Climate Bonds Initiative and Wai-Chan Chan, Managing Director of the The Consumer Goods Forum, Mr. Chan pointed out that next year will be a fantastic opportunity to push the transition into sustainable food systems, given that the Food Systems Summit will take place. Ms. Leigh-Bell reminded everyone that “going sustainable requires a lot of up-front capital cost and we need to support that.”
Finally, Rachel Kyte CMG, Dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts University concluded by stating that “we must generate a partnership between the private and public sectors so everyone in the world has access to a healthy diet that’s produced sustainably.”
The new report was presented by Guido Schmidt-Traub, Executive Director of SDSN and Angelo Riccaboni, Chair of Prima Foundation and a Professor at the University of Siena. It highlights the following (click here for the Executive Summary)
- Sustainability standards, frameworks, certifications, and accounting mechanisms should be improved in line with the 2030 Agenda, especially with reference to topics concerning supply/value chains and corporate citizenship – areas where companies tend to share very few disclosures.
- Metrics more coherent with the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement should be defined by regulators to be adapted by companies. To this aim, this report includes proposals for a more coherent measurement of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
- Businesses should systematically disclose their strategies, practices, and achievements or non-achievements of sustainability targets, using standardized indicators, metrics and benchmarks in order to measure the alignment of their strategies to the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement.
- Businesses can promote more sustainable and healthier dietary patterns through marketing and communications. Such efforts should be clearly represented in their sustainability reports.
- In line with the provisions of the European Green Deal and the Farm to Fork Strategy, policymakers should actively support a more ambitious regulation on sustainability reporting and ask for more rigorous governance and management practices that align with the SDGs and the Paris Climate Agreement.
- When monitoring the Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) of companies’ performance, investors should put more emphasis on metrics and indicators aligned with the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement.
- Businesses should be supported in their transition towards sustainability. This would allow companies to take advantage of the opportunities behind such change, without being fearful of the transition. To this aim, the proposed Four Pillar Framework for Corporate Alignment aims at providing a tool for businesses of all sectors to align with the SDGs and the PCA.
Four Pillar Framework for Corporate Alignment
It has been developed based on more than a year of research and consultation with diverse stakeholders, and it will continue to be refined and elaborated moving forward. It identifies four dimensions of all business activity that holistically and indivisibly impact society and the planet, as described below. In this report, it has been specifically applied to the food and agriculture sector, and it is evolving.
- BENEFICIAL PRODUCTS AND STRATEGIES
- SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS OPERATIONS AND INTERNAL PROCESSES
- SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY AND VALUE CHAINS
- GOOD CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP
See more information in the report and video of the launch here: https://www.fixing-food.com/
