GFLI Gearing-Up for Launch

The non-profit Global Feed LCA Institute (GFLI) is on its way to becoming fully operational. It is now possible for organizations to join GFLI as a member.

In September 2019 GFLI was legally incorporated in Washington, DC (USA). During the first fiscal year, the Board of Directors and operational partners dedicated resources to preparing infrastructure, and establishing all procedures, committees and overall support. In a press release, the GFLI communicates an overview of recent progress and plans for the coming months.

Greg Downing, Chair of the Board: “In establishing GFLI, we envision an independent and globally-relevant institute that will support the entire livestock value chain in its efforts to realize data-driven sustainability improvements. Our board of directors consists of active members of the feed sector from different regions, and we strive to include new board members from around the world to help us achieve our goal of global cooperation and implementation of the GFLI Database. Our focus during this first phase of operations has been on establishing the methodological and operational infrastructure and procedures that will allow us to dedicate ourselves to expanding the database during the next phase.”  

All procedures and methodological documentation need to be aligned in order to provide a credible and reliable database.

  
Nick Major, Vice Chair of the Board: “The assessment of emissions from livestock production must be based on facts. In order to be credible, it is important to establish both a common methodology and data. We know that a very large proportion of the emissions from the production of feed for livestock are from the production, processing and storage of raw materials. Without a reliable database of emissions from the most commonly used feed materials, it is impossible to accurately assess the environmental impact of feed and therefore livestock production.”  

To ensure that the GFLI database will remain credible and valued by all stakeholders, one of GFLI’s first actions was to establish a group of technical experts to provide guidance and recommendations on methodological issues. On 6 December 2019 the first official meeting of the GFLI Technical Management Committee (TMC) took place.

  
Technical Management Committee (TMC)

The TMC is made up of technical experts who are all active in the feed sector. The main goal of the TMC is to be the gatekeeper of the GFLI Methodology and advisor to the GFLI Board of Directors regarding all technical matters.  

Tom Battagliese, Chair of the TMC: “We are looking forward to seeing all of the hard work by the GFLI and the TMC come to fruition to make the GFLI the go-to source of environmental life cycle data for the global feed and animal protein value chains. The TMC will continue to develop the technical requirements and steer new datasets and technical application guidance so that the industry is assured of continuously evolving high quality and ready-to-use outputs that are in-line with the UN FAO Livestock Environmental Assessment & Performance (LEAP) Partnership guidelines and the EU Product Environmental Footprint (PEF)”. With this goal in mind, one major task of the TMC has been to review and update the GFLI methodology and procedures guidance documents. In addition to ensuring that these documents are technically rigorous, the TMC experts have focused on making them more transparent and user-friendly. Both documents are in the final stages of review and will soon be published on the GFLI website.

The TMC is also supporting our work to finalize database infrastructure improvements and legal documents needed to launch the expanded GFLI database later this year.

 
Looking Ahead

The GFLI looks forward to continuously developing and improving the GFLI database, and most of all, is eager to partner with stakeholders on this journey.  

Greg Downing: “GFLI is here for the long-term and aims to become the global reference for LCA data for feed and animal protein value chain partners. To achieve this goal, it is essential that we collaborate with a diverse group of stakeholders representing the feed and livestock industries, governmental agencies, research institutions, and other organizations dedicated to the continual improvement of the environmental performance of the feed and livestock sectors.”  

To that end, the GFLI is pleased to announce that organizations are now eligible for membership in GFLI, allowing them to directly support the Institute’s work to improve the environmental performance of feed and livestock production. Organizations interested in membership possibilities can contact the GFLI via gfli@agribusiness-service.nl.  

Nick Major: “Tackling climate change is a global issue which requires a global response. GFLI is a unique co-operation by the international feed industry to provide a freely available database of emission from feed materials which I hope will be embraced by all stakeholders. Its publication will stimulate the reporting and innovation needed to help the livestock industry improve its environmental footprint with respect to critical impacts such as carbon, water, land use and eutrophication.” GFLI is an independent feed and animal protein industry institute with the purpose of developing a publicly available life cycle analysis (LCA) database. The Institute will also provide a tool to support meaningful environmental assessment of animal nutrition products and stimulate continuous improvement of the environmental performance of the feed and animal protein value chains.