Beef’s intersection with ESG Metrics

Abstract

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics are in­creasingly important to businesses for evaluating their perfor­mance in non-financial indicators to investors. Currently, the largest intersection of the beef industry with ESG metrics is re­lated to the area of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) reporting and goals and targets. Many companies that sell beef products have made public commitments to reduce Scope 3 GHG emis­sions, which includes GHG emissions from all inputs, including emissions associated with the raising of cattle for beef. Cur­rently, there is a gap between company commitments and the U.S. beef supply’s ability to document and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from cattle production. Research filling these gaps, including improving models used for reporting and find­ing practical and scalable solutions to mitigate enteric methane emissions is a key focus of Colorado State University’ AgNext. Animal health and veterinary medicine is a key part of main­taining and achieving ESG metrics outcome goals, as lower rates of morbidity and mortality can lower resource inputs and GHG emissions per pound of beef produced. Additionally, animal health and well-being are fundamental components of the social license to operate for beef supply chains, thus bovine veterinari­ans can play a key role in ESG metrics related to beef production.