Sustainable Food Group

About Us

Sustainability Strategies for You & Your Supply Chain

Most sustainability consultants work from the boardroom down. We work from the field up — bringing on-the-ground agricultural expertise to help food and agriculture companies build supply chain sustainability programs that actually hold up.  

Since 2014, the IPM Institute of North America’s Sustainable Food Group has helped companies like Walmart, Sysco, Panera, and Whole Foods turn sustainability commitments into measurable results. Every project is different. Every solution is customized. But the goal is always the same: high-impact outcomes for your business, your supply chain, and the environment. 

We envision a world where agriculture and food companies are a force for good, directly benefiting workers, consumers, water, air, climate, biodiversity, and soil. We accomplish this through collaborative partnerships and science-based strategies.  

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Our Approach

Built Around Your Goals

Every supply chain is different. We start by understanding yours — your crops, your suppliers, your goals — before we recommend anything. Then we build something that fits. 

From analysis to action, our process follows three phases: 

Analyze

We start by understanding your priorities, existing efforts, and where you want to go — then assess what it will take to get there. That might mean mapping your supply chain, identifying risk hot spots, or surfacing vulnerabilities you didn’t know were there.

Design

We develop a scope of work tailored to your priorities — whether that’s a custom sustainable sourcing program, certification to the Sustainability Standard, a pollinator commitment, or something new just for you.

Do

We implement, measure, and help you communicate results to the stakeholders who need to see them — customers, investors, certification bodies, and your own team.

Our Services

Providing Customized Services to Advance Sustainability

Every engagement is customized — but here’s what we typically bring to the table. We’ll help you figure out which combination is the right fit for your goals.

Pesticide Risk Assessment

Not all pesticide risks are created equal. We help you identify where the real hot spots are in your supply chain — by crop and geography — so you can focus your energy where it will make the biggest difference.
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Supply Chain Assessment

Sometimes the most important step is simply knowing where you stand. We conduct surveys and interviews with your suppliers to establish sustainability baselines and identify opportunities for improvement — giving you a clear picture of where to focus.
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Supplier Verification

Once a sustainability policy or program is in place, we help you confirm it’s actually working in the field. We conduct supplier compliance verification on behalf of buyers — supporting the kind of credible, defensible reporting that stakeholders, customers, and certification bodies expect. It’s work we’ve done for Walmart, Whole Foods, and Sysco.
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IPM Plan Development and Review

We help your growers and suppliers build and maintain integrated pest management programs that actually work in the field — reducing pesticide risk for workers, pollinators, and the environment.
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Custom Supply Chain Program

If your goals don’t fit neatly into an existing framework, we’ll build something new. We design, verify, and help you report on programs tailored specifically to your company’s sustainability objectives.
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Projects & Initiatives

Growing Sustainability in Agriculture

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Performing a pesticide risk assessment in priority crops and identifying strategies to drive high impact changes

Using a pesticide risk analysis, an agricultural risk analysis and supplier engagement to ultimately inform a roadmap of recommendations to drive high impact change over time

Apple Talk: Working with Growers over the Phone to Achieve Sustainability Goals

Assessing Integrated Pest Management Adoption with General Mills

Developing the Sustainable Food Group Sustainability Standard

Ecoapple®: Developing an Eco-Label with Impact

EFI: Measuring Pesticide-Related Risks

Establishing Sysco as an Industry Leader: Advancing Integrated Pest Management and Sustainable Agriculture in a Global Supply Chain

Helping 75 Vietnamese Black Pepper Farmers Transition to Organic

Honeybear Brands and Sustainable Food Group Partner to Set High-Impact Sustainability Goals

IPM Institute of North America Proud to Have Worked with Walmart on Industry Leading Commitments to Help Protect Pollinator Health and Habitats

New White Paper Explores the Rise and Role of Regenerative Agriculture and Charts a Path Forward for Food Companies and AG Retailers

Performing a Pesticide Risk Assesment in Priority Crops and Identifying Strategies to Drive High Impact Changes

Proactive Supplier Engagement Allowed Panera to Identify and Phase Out High-Risk Pesticide Use Ahead of Federal Ban on Chlorpyrifos

SCS Global Services: Reviewing Temporary Pesticide Exemption Requests

Specialty Crop Grower Services: over a Decade of Helping Midwest Growers Achieve Sustainability Goals

The Potato Sustainability Alliance

The Well Earth Program: Sustainable Supply Chain Management for Frontier Co-Op

Using a Pesticide Risk Analysis, an Agricultural Risk Analysis and Supplier Engagement to Ultimately Inform A Roadmap of Recommendations to Drive High Impact Change Over Time

Insights

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