ANNOUNCING TRACT
New digital platform to accelerate sustainability measurement in the food and agriculture industry
3 October 2023
TRACT™, a pioneering sustainability measurement digital platform, is being introduced today, marking a significant milestone in the food and agriculture sector’s pursuit of greater sustainability and transparency. TRACT provides a simplified, consistent and secure solution for reporting traceability and sustainability performance across industry supply chains.
Developed by and for the food and agriculture industry, TRACT is the result of a collaborative effort of more than 30 companies committed to driving positive change. Four leading global food and agriculture companies - Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), Cargill, Louis Dreyfus Company and Olam – provided the initial funding and talent for TRACT and worked with other companies and non-profit organisations to develop a digital platform that uses common metrics and methodologies.
TRACT is now officially established as an independent company, with a leadership team consisting of experienced senior leaders from within the food and agriculture industry.
The food and agriculture sector faces unprecedented challenges, including the vulnerability of long-term supply chains, strict sustainability goals set by stakeholders and growing public and legislative pressure for greater transparency. TRACT will help meet these challenges and accelerate food and agriculture system transformation, by improving transparency from growers to retailers across industry supply chains.
The easy-to-use platform enables its users to compare metrics and methodologies across multiple product categories all in one place for the first time.
Key features of TRACT:
Clear Methodologies: TRACT uses consistent metrics and methodologies to measure sustainability performance, developed through extensive working groups with key industry specialists and stakeholders.
Streamlined Sustainability Reporting and Insights: TRACT simplifies sustainability reporting by providing a comprehensive overview of traceability and sustainability information across supply chains in one centralised platform.
User-Friendly Data Management: TRACT allows users to seamlessly upload, update and share data and insights with colleagues, customers and partners.
Visualised Sustainability Performance: TRACT provides clear visualisation of sustainability performance across products, suppliers and customers, enabling streamlined overview, comparison, aggregation and reporting.
Insights for Risk Mitigation: TRACT empowers users with valuable insights for risk mitigation and opportunities to align with legislation and their own sustainability objectives.
Cost and Time Savings: By reducing cost, effort, and time spent on sustainability measurement and reporting, TRACT allows its users to focus on improving sustainability performance for the benefit of multiple stakeholders.
Secure Environment: TRACT enables its users to share information and insights with each other securely, thanks to a robust security architecture and operational safeguards that are repeatedly tested to ensure data privacy. No user will have access to competitive or sensitive information of other users.
TRACT launches with the ability to share end-to-end traceability of coffee and palm supply chains. Shortly afterwards, it will follow with sustainability insights of carbon emissions and initial EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) reporting functionality to enable our customers to start their journey to EUDR compliance. The platform will then expand further to include the sustainability areas of deforestation, child labour risk, forced labour risk and living income and add new product categories including - but not limited to - soy, cocoa, corn and cotton.
TRACT has already been tested by an initial set of users, providing the company with valuable and positive feedback. From the beginning of 2024, companies across the food and agriculture supply chain will be able to subscribe to TRACT and become users, further advancing sustainability and transparency efforts in the industry.
Roel van Poppel, TRACT’s Co-founding CEO, said: “It’s no secret that food and agriculture supply chains face increasing sustainability challenges. We’re confident that the tools in this smart, independent platform will help accelerate the transformation that’s needed.
More than ever before, consumers are requesting greater transparency into the supply chains behind the products they buy. TRACT will enable companies to track and report on sustainability measurements more quickly and then allow them to focus on improving sustainable outcomes. We believe that TRACT marks a significant step towards efficiency, enabling the industry to pursue more sustainable practices.”
“TRACT is born out of a collective endeavour - by and for the food and agricultural production industry - to support more sustainable value chains through the provision of consistent supply chain sustainability data. Our team of experts from various commercial, sustainability, technology and legal backgrounds has allowed us to create a solution that the industry greatly needs.”
CONTACT:
For more information and to request an interview, please contact:
Kate Levine using this form.