ERBS Driving Regenerative Agriculture in Beef Production
18th June 2025
Nature and carbon are shaping the future direction of sustainable beef production. Following the launch of the European Roundtable for Beef Sustainability’s (ERBS) new set of 2030 targets earlier this year, ‘Nature’ has now been included as a priority area alongside updated ambitions under ‘Climate’, including carbon sequestration. This move aligns with a growing shift across policy, research, and marketplace recognising the essential role of nature in delivering a sustainable food system and protecting natural resources.
Under the Nature priority, the ERBS, through both landscape research and a materiality assessment, has identified biodiversity, water and soil health as central focuses. Due to the absence of consistent data (especially at scale) for nature criteria, ‘Pathway’ targets have been chosen – this offers a flexible approach that acknowledges the variability of local conditions and empowers farmers to drive change where they can have the greatest impact. Local context, incentive and outcome will determine the necessary action, all of which are to be underpinned by continuous review and learning.
Progress on these ‘Nature’ targets leans heavily on existing schemes or national programme as well as SAI Platform’s Regenerating Together programme which provides a global framework for regenerative agriculture across value chains.
Equally critical is carbon sequestration. The ERBS had already established a GHG emissions reduction target in 2019 with the ambition to evolve the target to incorporate soil carbon storage as both a climate mitigation tool and ecosystem benefit. Whilst the science around sequestration is known, large-scale measurement of credible data is still developing. By introducing a ‘Pathway’ target here too, the ERBS aims to encourage every farm to develop a carbon sequestration roadmap tailored to it unique context.
To support the transition to Regenerative Agriculture and progress delivery of the ERBS’ Nature and Carbon targets, a new ERBS-led project will consolidate ongoing research, pilot studies, programmes and data methodologies across Europe on beef pasture and feedlot production. The project includes a survey and in-depth interviews with ERBS members on their current efforts on nature criteria and carbon sequestration and recommends best practices for data capture. Outputs will feed into the Regenerating Together toolbox of guides together with a final report to be published and shared externally to promote sector-wide alignment and reduce duplication.
By equipping ERBS members with practical tools to capture nature and carbon sequestration data, this initiative aims to show that beef production can have a positive impact on nature whilst improving its climate footprint. In doing so, the ERBS seeks to inspire collaboration, harmonise data reporting and inform the future sustainability agenda for beef in Europe.
