Building Sustainable Protein Supply Chains
Our collaborative investor engagement on sustainable protein is the first to encourage the world’s largest food companies to develop a global, evidence-based approach to protein diversification. The engagement asks 23 global food companies to diversify their protein sources to drive growth and reduce risk exposure while improving their ability to compete and innovate in an increasingly resource-constrained world.
This year’s approach has evolved into dialogue-based engagement and will not involve sending company letters. Please note that the sign-on period has now closed.
Background
Alternative proteins are now big business and help drive growth in the food sector. For investors, an expanding alternative protein portfolio is a fundamental and necessary component to managing exposure to the most material ESG risks facing the food sector.
The Sustainable Proteins engagement is the world’s first and largest investor engagement focused on encouraging global food companies to systematically transition product portfolios to facilitate healthier, more sustainable diets. A key area of focus of the engagement is to ask companies to set time-bound commitments to increase the share of nutritious alternative proteins in their portfolios. Furthermore, companies must complement their supply chain interventions with a systematic transition to ensure that their protein portfolio improves public health in line with planetary boundaries.
Target Companies
Investor Members can log into FAIRR’s investor portal to download the full report and access individual company-level analyses. Listed below are the 23 target companies that are involved in the 2022 company dialogues.
Protein Diversification
A protein diversification strategy cannot merely focus on adding a few alternative protein products to a company’s portfolio. It requires a comprehensive strategy to expand product development and research, explore the applicability of new food technologies and acquisitions, leverage their marketing power to influence consumers to embrace new products, and engage their supplier community to mitigate the impacts on farmer livelihoods. To undertake such a transformation, companies must:
- Evaluate their current exposure to animal proteins (meat, poultry, dairy, egg, fish and seafood) and the risk profile of these supply chains
- Assess the strategic implications of growth plans that are predicated on a higher reliance on animal proteins (through scenario analysis).
- Commit at the highest level to transitioning their global business model to less resource-intensive ingredients and products
- Develop a cross-functional strategy (involving R&D, marketing, sustainable sourcing) to undertake a transition
- Set clear goals and timelines to support a clear pathway for action
- Report on the right metrics to evaluate and measure progress and impacts
Resources
Explore the findings from the latest (2021) report in our interactive Sustainable Proteins Hub. Here, investors can compare and assess the progress of the 25 companies within the engagement.
Previous reports show the evolution of companies involved in the Sustainable Proteins engagement, which continues to provide industry insights and challenge companies to diversify protein sources and build climate-aligned portfolios.
Report
The pandemic has been a stress test for the animal protein industry, exposing the vulnerabilities of today’s intensive centralised production system. It has brought…
Report
The COVID-19 outbreak has triggered an unprecedented health and economic crisis. As well as affecting every country in the world, this novel virus has…
Report
The global food industry is currently undergoing enormous transformation led by rapidly evolving sector dynamics. Consumers are leading the charge, prioritising products and ingredients…
Report
One of the greatest challenges facing the world today is to ensure that the growing population has access to adequate, sustainable and nutritious food.…
Guest podcast
Maria Lettini joins Eva Cairns to discuss the challenges the food industry faces when trying to tackle climate change.