Greenham blazes new trails with sustainability standard

In a commercial first, the innovative Victorian-based operation has developed an optional sustainability standard for its grassfed supply chain, which will provide its suppliers with a pathway to secure financial premiums for taking early action.

The program was developed in response to long-term market demand for robust and transparent sustainability credentials for premium Australian grassfed beef.

And it's not just climate, ecological and animal welfare benefits the program is delivering - the initiative is aligned with the four pillars of the Australian Beef Sustainability Framework, which also take into account economic resilience, safety and people management.

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The family-owned Greenham, which started with a butcher shop in Melbourne's inner west more than 150 years ago and today runs three export-accredited processing plants in Victoria and Tasmania, has brands found on menus across the globe.

Its famous Cape Grim Beef is a world-renowned grassfed label.

In 2012 Greenham launched the Never Ever beef program to meet growing consumer demand for grassfed beef, particularly in the United States where the majority of domestic beef production is grainfed.

The lifetime-traceable Never Ever gives consumers assurance that all animals are 100 per cent grassfed, have been given no added hormones, are antibiotic free, free range, free from genetically modified organisms, Meat Standards Australia eligible and Certified Humane.

Initially the program was supplied exclusively by cattle finished in Tasmania, but with the opening of Greenham's Gippsland plant in 2018, the Never Ever program now boasts 4,200 accredited suppliers from all Australian states - with the largest volume coming from Victoria and Tasmania.

It's a big part of Greenham's business, making up half of its production.

The Greenham Beef Sustainability Standard is an extension of this program, paving the way for a new, Certified Regenerative beef product.

Greenham livestock supply chain manager Jess Loughland described the standard as a practical set of indicators and measures that broke down high level concepts into clear steps producers could take on-farm.

The standard comprises three tiers: the first prioritises education and sets a baseline for sustainable management, while tiers two and three focus on continuous improvement, striving for optimum ecological health, carbon neutrality and best practice financial, people and safety management.

Product packed off cattle from accredited properties that have achieved two or three is eligible to carry a Certified Regenerative label.

Some examples of tier one practices include preferencing polled genetics under the animal welfare pillar, identifying areas at risk of erosion and managing ground cover, and completing two carbon management e-learning modules that are freely available in MLA's The Toolbox portal.

Ms Loughland said all indicators and measures were strongly aligned with industry goals, including CN30, and the ABSF.

"That was important to us. We didn't want to be sending different messages to producers about what they should be focusing on," she said.

"There is so much power in working together. Around the world we want people to have confidence in Australian beef.

"The bottom line is that we want science-backed environmental credentials that are going to deliver real production benefits at the farm gate.

"It's about strengthening the supply chain and providing our customers with answers to their questions."

The GBSS was piloted last year with 21 producers from a range of production systems across southern Australian.

From March, Greenham started supplying GBSS-accredited product to customers. The program will be rolled out incrementally to the Greenham Never Ever supply chain over the next two years as an additional market option.