Metrics Catalyst Group

Convened by the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC)

AMBITION STATEMENT

The Metrics Catalyst Group is intended to be a non-competitive and collaborative space that brings together sustainable food systems metrics experts and practitioners as well as selected financial institutions and companies that are part of the Good Food Finance Network (GFFN).

The Metrics Catalyst Group intends to contribute to improved measurement of progress towards sustainable food systems by increasing cross-sectoral understanding of the challenges in measuring progress toward sustainable food systems.
SUMMARY

The Metrics Catalyst Group

Will convene regular meetings and intends to produce three briefs covering:

Gaps and barriers identified by the members;
Knowledge of key issues related to sustainable food systems metrics shared by members;
Potential priorities for action.

A sustainable food system delivers food security and nutrition such that the economic, social and environmental mechanisms for generating food are safeguarded for future generations.
sCIENTIFIC GROUP FOR THE UN FOOD SYSTEMS SUMMIT

Second Metrics Brief now available, featuring Climate Metrics:

This brief summarizes key trends in climate-related metrics used by financial institutions (FIs) working in the sustainability of food systems and provides an overview of the current state of climate metrics. It highlights challenges that FIs face, potential solutions to these challenges, gaps in currently available metrics, and provides a set of recommendations for financial institutions and developers of metrics to improve the availability and uptake of robust approaches to measure climate performance of food-related businesses. Read and download below!

Climate Metrics Brief Download

Metrics for Sustainable Food Systems:

The purpose of this brief is to set the scene and identify general gaps and opportunities related to improving sustainable food systems metrics used by financial institutions. It provides a summary of the discussions during the first two meetings of the Metrics Catalyst Group, and will be used to help identify priorities moving forward. Following this initial brief, the Metrics Catalyst Group plans to publish thematic briefs, covering topics that have been identified as priorities in more detail. Read and download below!

gffn-metrics-catalyst-group-brief Download

Our definitions

We define ‘metric’ as a system or standard of measurement used by financial institutions to assess risks, and potential investments and measure the progress of specific companies or entire portfolios. This definition is consistent with the use of the concept by the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) that are spearheading the advancement of assessment and disclosure metrics for use by companies across the world.

We focus specifically on metrics intended for use by financial institutions for assessing environmental, social, nutritional, and economic aspects of food system sustainability. The metrics can serve many purposes both pre- and post-investment. We are considering metrics focusing on direct operations at a given site, metrics focusing on any other section of the value chain (production, transport, storage, processing, packaging, and waste) as well as metrics used at the corporate or portfolio level.

Metric frameworks are collections of metrics that are structured to serve specific purposes. They can have different subjects, target audiences, or thematic focus.