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Origin Green is Ireland’s national food sustainability programme. It is a voluntary programme led by Bord Bia that brings together farmers, food producers, retailers and food service operators with the common goal of sustainable food production.

This month we speak with Bord Bia’s Sharon Colgan, Programme Marketing Manager, Origin Green, to understand how the Irish food and drink industry is playing its part in delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals.

What are the SDGs?

The United Nations introduced 17 ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, to cover a wide range of issues, including responsible consumption and production, climate action, sustainable communities, as well as targeting poverty and hunger, and health and wellbeing. The goals are part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, agreed to by 193 member states of the UN, including Ireland.

Basically, they are the world’s ‘To Do List’ and they set out a roadmap for governments and industry to move towards a fairer and more sustainable future. The SDGs were the result of several years of inclusive consultations and negotiations between UN Member States, civil society and engaged citizens around the world. The final set of negotiations at the UN was co-facilitated by Ireland and Kenya.

How can the Origin Green programme help to achieve the SDGs?

The SDGs and their associated targets are used to provide guidance in the ongoing development of the Origin Green programme. In 2016, Bord Bia demonstrated the alignment of the Origin Green Charter with nine of the 17 SDGs. With the addition of new charter target areas such as packaging and diversity and inclusion introduced this year, Origin Green now aligns with 15 of the 17 goals. Details on actions the Origin Green members are taking to align with the goals can be found here: origingreen.ie/globalassets/global-goals.pdf

To further support Origin Green’s alignment with the SDGs, in June 2018 Bord Bia became a member of the United Nations Global Compact. The UNGC is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, with over 13,000 members and other stakeholders from over 160 countries.

In Association with

Through this membership, Bord Bia gains access to a range of international stakeholders and resources to share best practices, guidance and emerging solutions to address global sustainability challenges and support private business to deliver on the SDGs. This will further guide Bord Bia’s ongoing development of Origin Green, and deepen its commitment to promoting the delivery of the SDGs within the Irish food and drink industry.

What is Bord Bia doing to promote the SDGs?

Through the Origin Green programme, we are helping Irish food and drink businesses understand the goals and how their own sustainability plans can deliver on the global agenda. We encourage our membership base of over 340 companies to drive awareness for the SDGs among their staff, customers and the general public by providing them with relevant communications materials. We showcase the goals on our Ireland stands at major international trade events.

At Bord Bia’s Bloom festival this year, we encouraged 115,000 visitors over the five days to find out more about the Global Goals and how Origin Green companies are aligned via a colourful SDG display feature. We will also create a dynamic SDG window display at our busy Dublin city centre office location this summer.

For further information on the initiatives above, visit globalgoals.org and origingreen.ie