International standards strengthen the ABSF

The Australian Beef Sustainability Framework (ABSF), plays a critical role in recording and reporting the beef industry’s sustainability progress. It carries a significant responsibility to accurately reflect activities across the supply chain.  

To ensure the framework was both reputable and practical for industry, the ABSF was built on a strong foundation, leveraging internationally recognised standards rather than starting from scratch.  

Aligning with global best practice

From the outset, the ABSF adopted standards from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), a leading authority on sustainability reporting, with more than 25 years of evolution and refinement behind it.  

GRI Certified Training Partner Marian Gruber, Managing Director, ZOOiD, said the GRI standards help organisations disclose the right information about their environmental, social and economic impacts to stakeholders, including customers, consumers, the public, and investors.

“An organisation’s sustainability impacts continuously change over time. We might find that our performance improves in some areas and goes backward in others. The most important thing is to measure performance year-on-year so that we can track and make the appropriate changes accordingly.” Marian said.

With each change comes an expectation for organisations to monitor, measure and manage these changes, and transparently report their progress.

“If the GRI Standards are used as intended – to provide a transparent and accountable account of our impacts and how we manage them – this will create benefits such as reducing business risk and building trust and reputation, together with other benefits such as promoting innovation and providing a tool for engagement with stakeholders.”  

In 2023, the GRI released the GRI 13: Agriculture, Aquaculture and Fishing Sector Standard 2022. The standard includes topics such as biodiversity, soil health, pesticide use, effluents and waste, and food security, offering the ABSF a clear pathway to best practice reporting on those factors.  

“The meat industry is top of mind when a lot of people consider their impact on the environment, so it’s important to be able to measure your performance so that people can see how the industry is performing and improving (or not) in those areas,” Marian said.  

How the ABSF uses the GRI Standards 

Rather than being one of many obligations within an organisation, the ABSF exists to record and report on the sustainability of the beef industry.  

With 77% of the world’s largest 250 companies reporting against the GRI Standards, implementing those standards ensures the ABSF reports its sustainability performance in a consistent language that is understood around the world. 

Manager of the Australian Beef Sustainability Framework Jacob Betros said the GRI Standards provide guidance when undertaking materiality assessments, which are used to determine sustainability priorities and challenges in the industry.  

“Having those standards ensures we’re covering off on all aspects of our sustainability priorities, and once they’re identified, we use the GRI Standards again to decide what we need to be reporting on,” Jacob said. 

As much as they guide the direction of the ABSF, the GRI Standards are a tool to also secure trust.  

“By using the guidance of international standards, we can protect ourselves from negative claims such as greenwashing, or that we might be hiding anything." 

As the ABSF develops to best reflect a constantly changing industry, using the GRI Standards ensures stakeholders can extract what they need to know when it comes to sustainability. 

About Marian Gruber

Marian Gruber, Managing Director, ZOOiD, is an experienced practitioner in sustainability reporting and strategy with over two decades of experience.