PoultryWorld: Egg Farmers of Canada launches enviro sustainability tool

Egg Farmers of Canada has introduced its National Environmental Sustainability Tool (NEST), an online tool with which Canadian egg farmers can measure, monitor and manage the environmental footprint of their farms.

With this tool, farmers can perform a sustainability assessment of their farm to better understand key drivers of environmental performance, including energy and water use, and compare their results to other farms in their region and throughout the country.

Tim Lambert, CEO of Egg Farmers of Canada, which manages the national egg supply and promotes egg consumption while representing the interests of regulated egg producers throughout the country, said that with the growing demand and increasing uses of eggs comes the responsibility to produce eggs sustainably, “which is why our nation’s egg sector and our hard-working egg farmers from coast to coast remain committed to continually improving operations and practices and why we invest in innovation and new tools like NEST,” adding that the development of NEST is part of a broader, holistic vision of sustainability.

“As egg farming continues to grow, enabling more sustainable agriculture will continue to play a central role in securing a strong, prosperous future for the industry and for Canada,” he said.

“Tremendous” gains have been made

Egg Farmers of Canada said that the local egg sector has “made tremendous gains to its environmental sustainability over time”, with egg production emitting substantially less greenhouse gas and using less water, land and energy than it did 50 years ago. NEST, it said, will help farmers countrywide create an action plan, set sustainability goals, track progress and work towards making their farms even more sustainable.

Sustainability performance on Canadian egg farms

Dr Nathan Pelletier, Egg Farmers of Canada Research Chair in Sustainability at the University of British Columbia Okanagan: “Egg farmers collect a massive amount of data on energy, feed, and water use, as well as farm operating parameters and conditions. What we’re doing is facilitating the anonymous aggregation of this information so that farmers can see where they fit in the broader spectrum of sustainability performance and consider options to further reduce their environmental footprints.”

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