Recognizing that animal feed is a critical component in measuring the total environmental footprint of animal nutrition products, an international consortium came together in 2016 to establish a “global gold standard” for calculating the life-cycle analysis (LCA) of feed ingredients. Now, the founding partners of the Global Feed LCA Institute (GFLI) are establishing a legal non-profit institute, under the same name, to expand its work and make the data more widely available to stakeholders throughout the global food value chain.
“Having access to reliable and scientific environmental data on feed ingredients is important for companies, academia and others working on sustainable animal protein production for not only improving the accuracy of their environmental reporting, but also for benchmarking and setting future sustainability goals,” the founding GFLI partners said.
The institute’s mission will be to make publicly available an expanded regional and sectorial animal nutrition LCA database, consolidating the existing LCA datasets GFLI developed for the European Union, United States and Canada. The initial datasets are based on the environmental standards of the Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance (LEAP) Partnership, a project led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The institute will also develop tools to assist stakeholders in assessing the environmental footprint of animal nutrition products and encourage continuous improvement throughout the global animal nutrition and food industry.
“The consortium is a great example of several international feed partners taking responsibility voluntarily and creating something that will serve a greater good to the animal agricultural community,” said GFLI Board chair Greg Downing. “Now, as a formal non-profit association, we will be able to expand our work of developing LCA datasets for feed ingredients for other regions and broaden our reach with stakeholders making sustainability decisions.”
The GFLI Board launched the new institute on September 19, 2019 at the American Feed Industry Association’s (AFIA) offices in Arlington, Virginia, USA. The new legal entity will be incorporated in the District of Columbia, USA, and Agribusiness Service B.V., an independent third party based in Europe, will manage its daily operations. The institute is expected to be operational by early 2020.
