Colorado Springs, CO, USA – GRSB presented their first awards recognizing individuals for excellence and advancement of sustainability in the beef value chain, conducted an extremely successful Global Conference on Sustainable Beef in Uruguay with attendees from 24 countries, and introduced a ground-breaking Sustainability Progress Report, highlighting the efforts of their national and regional roundtable members.
New Recognition Awards Presented by GRSB
Three awards were announced at the close of GRSB’s Global Conference on Sustainable Beef held in Punta del Este, Uruguay September 30-October 3 and co-hosted by the new Uruguay Roundtable for Sustainable Beef.
The first is the 2024 GRSB Success Through Collaboration Award, which recognizes an individual who exemplifies the foundational principles and goals of GRSB and drives collaborative efforts to advance beef sustainability. This award is to be given to a beef producer that has demonstrated practical steps towards the achievement of the GRSB’s goals.
The judging criteria of this award include deforestation free, climate adaptation and mitigation and animal care.
Melinee Leather of Leather Cattle Company, nominated by the Australian Beef Sustainability Framework, is this year’s winner.
Melinee Leather, Leather Cattle Company, GRSB Success Through Collaboration
Award
Leading by example, Melinee Leather, Leather Cattle Co, strives to implement positive change by building extension and adoption networks to enhance, strengthen and protect not only their business but build the capacity of their broader industry.
Leather was not able to attend the Global Conference in person
but accepted the award via video.
View video HERE
The next award, the GRSB Presidents’ Award, recognizes an individual who has driven success for GRSB through dedication, support and engagement.
As many individuals have made exemplary contributions to the organization over the years, it was decided to honor a person for past work as well as someone from the present.
Roger Cadywas honored with the “First GRSB Presidents’ Award.”
Roger Cady served as GRSB Secretary/Treasurer for six years during the first decade of the organization,
GRSB Executive Director Ruaraidh Petre said of Roger, “His energy was a catalyst to the creation of GRSB.”
Cady was unable to attend in person but was interviewed and accepted the honor via video. View video HERE.
Roger Cady, First GRSB Presidents’ Award
Since this was the first year of presenting these rewards, GRSB honored a second individual currently contributing greatly to their growth and success.
Hilary Fenrich, McDonald’s Global Manager for Nature & Water Strategy was named 2024 GRSB Presidents’ Award winner.”
Hilary Fenrich,
2024 GRSB Presidents’ Award
Fenrich was honored for her extensive and outstanding work as co-chair on the Nature Positive Goal Working Group.
“Her Working Group worked effectively to develop GRSB’s Global Goal in that area and has continued their work to develop the goal’s metrics,” said Petre.
Fenrich was able to accept her award in person.
Watch video HERE.
Global Conference on Sustainable Beef: Proving ProgressSeptember 30 – October 3, 2024 Punta del Este, Uruguay
The Global Conference had impressive metrics. After three days of sessions, which included a full day for face-to-face meetings for the national and regional Roundtable members, Working Groups for Animal Health & Welfare and Nature Positive Production, and the Constituency Group for Allied Services and Industries, and two full days of presentations and panel discussions, there were also three tour opportunities of beef production, processing and research organizations.
Presentations of innovation and sustainability progress by organizations around the globe were presented in English and Spanish with simultaneous translation smoothing communications between speakers and the audience in real time.
Welcomed to Uruguay by Fernando Mattos, the Uruguay Minister of Livestock and Agriculture, the participants of the Global Conference enjoyed the beautiful setting of coastal Punta del Este, the exquisitely modernistic Grand Hotel, and the superb cuisine and culture of Uruguayan hospitality.
Fernando Mattos Costa
Uruguay Minister of Livestock, Agriculture, and Fisheries
The premiere of the new documentary World Without Cows was introduced by Alltech President and CEO Dr. Mark Lyons. The film was produced under his company’s care. Dr. Lyons joined a panel discussion after the film and gave the Global Conference opening keynote address the next morning.
Dr. Mark Lyons, Alltech
After the sessions featuring 53 prestigious and dynamic speakers garnered from across the world’s beef value chain, academia, policy makers, and environmental and research organizations, the 268 attendees were treated to a closing dinner address reviewing the beef industry’s challenges and opportunities from the 1970’s to the present by JBS Board of Directors Chair Jerry O’Callaghan, along with his optimism for the future.
Jerry O’Callaghan, JBS
Reporting Progress on Continued Efforts
The GRSB Sustainability Progress Report 2024 got a first look by the Global Conference attendees. The report, now available online in English and Spanish, tracks how the GRSB Roundtable members’ efforts measure progress against the GRSB Global Goals.
Click on images below to read Report online or download PDF
“When GRSB developed our Global Goals and released them in 2021, we realized that the challenge was just beginning. While building consensus for the goals was a lengthy process, delivering on them was much more complicated and involved many more people and their organizations, from farm or ranch through to retailers,” says Petre.
“The goals on Climate, Animal Health and Welfare and Nature Positive Production were chosen as the priorities for beef sustainability in 2021. In addition, over the course of 2023 and 2024, we have been working on developing a goal for Social Wellbeing, which will be added to future reporting.”
As a foundational step to support goal progress, national and regional roundtables have leveraged multiple approaches for sustainability assessment included in the Report.
Ongoing Reporting and Continuous Improvement
The goals reporting summary included in the Sustainability Report is considered a starting point and baseline, with a key objective of providing a common framework to support collaboration and innovation by the national and regional roundtables. This baseline provides a first step for measuring progress.
Moving forward, global sustainability goal reporting by roundtable members is planned to be conducted every two years, allowing GRSB to comprehensively evaluate collective sustainability initiatives and make informed adjustments with a focus on continuous improvement.
