Global alliance targets single environmental footprinting standard for food

A new international alliance is calling on food and beverage businesses to help develop a single global standard for calculating the environmental footprint of individual products.

The Global Sustainable Transition Alliance (GSTA), convened by WRAP and Wageningen University & Research (WUR), launched in March 2026 and brings together businesses, NGOs, consultants and product footprinting tool providers to address the challenge of inconsistent environmental data across supply chains.

The alliance is initially focusing on greenhouse gas emissions and plans to align its approach with established frameworks including the GHG Protocol, Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), Partnership for Carbon Transparency (PACT), ISO and Product Environmental Footprint (PEF).

Its aim is to add greater specificity and detail to these frameworks so product footprints can be compared more consistently, regardless of who calculates them.

Why does product footprinting matter?

Companies increasingly need environmental data from suppliers to understand the impact of their products and wider value chains. However, suppliers can use different methodologies and databases to calculate those impacts, making it difficult for companies to produce consistent figures across complex supply chains.

This is particularly relevant to Scope 3 emissions, which include indirect emissions generated throughout a company’s value chain.

Companies need consistent data from their worldwide suppliers to calculate reliable numbers of the impact of their full supply chain (scope 3). Currently suppliers use many different methods and databases which leads to inconsistent totals for the full supply chain. GSTA is going to address this.”

Koen Boone, Coordinator Sustainable Value Chains, WUR.

A common approach could also reduce duplicated work for businesses and make it easier to identify where action could have the greatest environmental impact.

Building on existing standards

GSTA is not proposing to replace the major frameworks already used by businesses. Instead, it wants to develop a more detailed sector-specific approach that can work alongside them.

Naama Avni-Kadosh, Director, Partnership for Carbon Transparency (PACT) at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, said greater alignment between initiatives will be important as companies increasingly rely on environmental data from across international supply chains.

“PACT is proud to be a founding member of GSTA,” she said. ”Global supply chains inherently cross industry boundaries, so credible carbon data has to as well. Sector initiatives like GSTA add the specificity that food and beverage companies need, while PACT provides the common data infrastructure that keeps those efforts interoperable.”

The alliance’s founding members include Ahold Delhaize, the companies of Schwarz Group, Mars, Incorporated, Mondra, Mondra Coalition, Global Changer, Inoqo, European Sustainable Food Coalition, PACT, Systain Coalition, HowGood and Foodsteps.

What happens next?

GSTA is now seeking additional food and beverage businesses to join the alliance and contribute to the development of the proposed standard.

“It has been hugely exciting to partner with Wageningen University & Research to establish this alliance for the food and beverage sector,” said Sofie Schop, Executive Director, EU & Global Partnerships Director at WRAP. ”By joining GSTA and our leading founding members, your business will be part of the first global industry-wide alliance to develop a single global footprinting standard.”

The development is supported by international NGOs including Consumers International and PACT, an initiative hosted by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

If successful, the proposed approach could give food and beverage companies a more consistent basis for comparing product-level environmental impacts and using that information to guide emissions reduction efforts.

For GSTA, the immediate challenge is building sufficient industry participation to ensure the eventual methodology reflects the needs of businesses across the global food and beverage supply chain.