Providing Food Companies Third-Party Verification of Its Supply Chain
(DES MOINES, Iowa) Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), a leader in providing innovative environmental responsibility solutions, announces the rollout of EcoPractices®3.0. EcoPractices is SEC’s independent, third-party verification and validation platform that uses science with state-of-the-art technology to assess supply chain sustainability risk and quantify key sustainability performance indicators. The platform provides food organizations with a data-driven solution to reach its sustainability and regenerative goals.
“Sustainability risk management planning and developing risk reduction solutions is important because it supports farmers and food companies alike in effectively telling the story of the good they do for the environment and their communities,” said John Harsch, SEC’s president and COO.
The EcoPractices platform allows SEC’s team of experts to identify, collect, document, verify and generate environmental impacts of conservation practices. EcoPractices produces comprehensive reporting with measurable metrics to help food companies and producers effectively tell their story. This type of reporting allows for scientific analysis to be communicated to food companies, producers and consumers to bridge the gap in industry trust and move the needle in fulfilling regenerative agriculture.
The Benefits of EcoPractices 3.0
The EcoPractices platform thrives in a cloud-based web application with comprehensive data traceability. It allows for flexibility in environmental indicators of interest and is adaptive for row crop, dairy, beef, poultry, swine or specialty crop partners.
As part of the EcoPractices 3.0 platform rollout, SEC has released a mobile app, the integration with other industry tools, and the introduction of Sustainable Continuous Improvement Plans™ (SCIP). The EcoProducer® mobile app is an optional tool that assists in streamlining data collection by providing the user the ability to send a piece of data from anywhere on a farm instantly. The platform can integrate with industry tools and calculators, such as Cool Farm Tool and Field to Market.
In addition, the platform delivers a fresh approach to provide value back to the producer or grower through the use of SCIP™. These plans provide a quantitative, data-driven assessment of environmental performance presented in actionable outcomes.
“EcoPractices is a best-in-class platform that’s independent, data-driven, and can measure a variety of agricultural practices, not just row crop. It also is scalable and does not differentiate for large or small farm suppliers,” said Harsch. “Combine that with SEC’s ability to partner with everyone from farm to fork, including other organizations and tools, our EcoPractices platform adds another layer of research-driven technology to the sustainability toolbox supporting actionable solutions to implement practice changes and reduce reputation risk.”
SEC can tailor its analysis process specific to a food company’s needs – whether it is assisting with the development of environmental initiatives or building a customer verification process. More importantly, the EcoPractices platform shores up supply chain risk, provides confidence that suppliers are implementing measurable actions, and verifies through a third-party what is stated to the public to build brand trust.
For example, SEC is a partner to Danone North America in its Regenerative Agriculture and Soil Health Initiatives by leading its farm data collection and analytics of the dairies as a third-party verification service provider. In this process, SEC uses its best-in-class EcoPractices platform which provides a data-driven solution for Danone North America to reach its goals by assessing its supply chain sustainability risk and quantifying its key performance indicators. This approach evaluates field scale metrics to support the company’s farmer partners to reduce their environmental footprint and helps them tell their unique sustainability story.
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About Sustainable Environmental Consultants
Established in 2008, Sustainable Environmental Consultants is part of the Wright Service Corp. employee-owned family of companies. Since our inception, we have endeavored to be a leader in providing innovative solutions to better the planet through our three divisions of Sustainability Risk Management, Agricultural Engineering and Compliance, and Erosion Control. SEC provides a full range of environmental services needed by food companies and their agriculture supply systems. To learn more, visit www.sustainableenviro.com.
CONTACT: Kathleen Cuddy
Phone: 816-301-8253