Certified Sustainable Beef Framework

The mission of the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef is to advance sustainability of sustainable beef production in Canada. Not only does this Certification Framework recognize sustainable practices and support the retail and foodservice sector to meet their sustainable sourcing goals, but the real impact is measuring the continuous improvement in Canadian Beef production at all points in the supply chain.

To help measure sustainability outcomes and progress, CRSB's Certification Bodies report on a series of key indicators in the standards over time, demonstrated through the scoring levels achieved by Certified Operations. 

Since launching the Certified Sustainable Beef Framework in 2018, the program has made some amazing progress and demand continues to grow among its supply chain partners. Over 29 million lbs of beef have been sourced from CRSB Certified farms and ranches since the program started.

Currently, over 19% of the national cattle herd is now raised on Certified Sustainable Operations across Canada.  This shows the value of demonstrating their sustainable practices against the standards, and the breadth of sustainable production already in place on Canadian farms and ranches. 

There are several processing facilities certified to the Sustainable Processing Standard, as well as processors and distributors audited to the Chain of Custody Requirements, meaning that they are responsible for tracking the cattle and beef through the supply chain.

A variety of grocery retailers, restaurants and foodservice brands are sourcing beef from these Certified farms and ranches, and other have made sourcing commitments towards future CRSB Claims.

Learn more in the CRSB's 2022 Annual Report. 

Sustainability Benchmarking

To measure farm to fork sustainability of the whole Canadian Beef value chain, CRSB measures sustainability through its National Beef Sustainability Assessment - a comprehensive scientific assessment that benchmarks the environmental, social and economic performance of the Canadian beef industry. It highlights the areas where industry is doing well, and identifies opportunities for improvement. The Assessment will be completed every 5-7 years to measure progress and celebrate continuous improvements achieved against the goals of our sustainability strategy.

The first National Beef Sustainability Assessment, released in October 2016, provided a baseline of the Canadian beef industry across environmental, social and economic parameters, to monitor and measure progress in future assessments. The assessment informed a Sustainability Strategy to help target future work. Ten key goals to foster continuous improvement guide the strategy across all aspects of beef sustainability.

Building on these goals, the Canadian beef industry has released a robust suite of long-term goals looking towards 2030, to add robustness, key activities and metrics to achieve this continuous improvement. 

Learn more about CRSB's Sustainability Benchmarking