Understanding the role of environmental voluntary sustainability standards in the European beef value chain

Beef is a ‘deforestation risk’ commodity, and its production is environmentally challenging, given its exceptionally high carbon, water and land footprints. Europe is the world’s third largest beef producer, following Brazil and the United States. Under European Union law, firms operating along the beef value chain are required to disclose their sustainability-related activities by the regulation on due diligence. The aim of this study was to understand the extent and the factors that shape the adoption of environmental sustainability strategies in the European beef value chain. We collected original data on a sample of companies from Orbis and carried out a content analysis of firm websites and sustainability reports. We created an environmental sustainability index based on a list of 23 environmental practices. We also considered the company characteristics related to the disclosure of particularly interesting practices, such as feed methane control and manure management, and to the adoption of sustainability certifications. We performed a negative binomial hurdle regression analysis on a sample of 263 beef firms. We found that the value chain position of economic actors, firm size and risk identification are some of the firm characteristics related to the adoption of sustainability practices and certifications.