Deirdre Ryan
Director of Sustainability & Quality Assurance, Origin Green Programme at Bord Bia
Recent global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the ever-growing impact of the climate crisis and the terrible war in Ukraine have highlighted the crucial role of Ireland’s national farm to fork sustainability programme.
Ireland’s €13.5 billion food, drink and horticulture export industry has established a hard earned, global reputation as a leading producer of high- quality sustainably produced food and drink. Maintaining Ireland’s international reputation for sustainable production and improving the environmental impact of our food production methods must continue to be evidence-based.
Embedding sustainability within business
Since 2012, Bord Bia’s Origin Green programme has demonstrated global leadership in national food sustainability; providing the entire food and drink industry in Ireland with the knowledge and know how to embed sustainability into their businesses and forging a reputation for innovative leadership internationally.
Bord Bia continuously works with Irish food, drink and horticulture businesses and partners across the sector, to provide the most effective and impactful solutions to support companies to drive sustainability progress in all areas of their operations.
Since February this year, the organisation has hosted a series of five webinars designed to enable large scale member companies to accelerate the development and implementation of ambitious and data-driven science based targets (SBT). The bespoke SBTs webinar series supported companies to adopt higher levels of ambition and more impactful methods in relation to their emissions targets, which are needed to meet the growing environmental challenges and evolving market needs that Ireland faces.
The programme collaborates with approximately 55,000 farms and over 300 leading Irish food and drink companies.
Positive change and sustainable food production
The Origin Green programme remains the world’s only national food and drink sustainability programme. Since its inception, it has established an infrastructure for farmers and producers committed to positive change and sustainable food production across Ireland. Currently the programme collaborates with approximately 55,000 farms and over 300 leading Irish food and drink companies to prove and improve the sustainability credentials of our food, drink and horticulture sectors to meet the evolving demands of customers and consumers globally.
Over the last 10 years, the programme has demonstrated leadership in food sustainability, providing the food, drink and horticulture sector in Ireland with the knowledge and guidance to embed sustainability into their businesses. It helps to bring a competitive advantage to the Irish food drink and horticulture industry and forging a reputation for innovative leadership internationally.
Utilising the proof we have compiled from our work with members and programme partners, we will maximise the power of this network to maintain our global leadership position in sustainable food production into the future.