New international alliance aims to standardize environmental footprint measurement across global food and beverage supply chains

WRAP and Wageningen University launched the Global Sustainable Transition Alliance to create unified, comparable data standards for measuring the environmental footprint of food and drink products worldwide. The initiative addresses fragmentation in reporting frameworks by aligning with major standards including the GHG Protocol, SBTi, and ISO, enabling companies of all sizes to streamline their environmental accounting and focus resources on developing greener products. The program brings together major retailers, manufacturers, and sustainability organizations to establish a single global standard for food industry emissions measurement.

The initiative addresses a longstanding inefficiency in the food sector: companies currently waste considerable time and resources interpreting multiple competing measurement frameworks rather than investing in sustainability improvements. By harmonizing how environmental data is collected and reported globally, the alliance enables meaningful comparison between products and suppliers, removing barriers that have previously made emissions reduction efforts fragmented and difficult to scale.

The founding coalition represents significant market power, spanning major European retailers and manufacturers alongside research institutions and sustainability organizations. This diverse partnership structure suggests the standard is designed for practical adoption across companies of varying sizes and technical capabilities, rather than serving only large enterprises with dedicated environmental teams.