FAQs

The Sustainable Food Group (SFG), a branch of the IPM Institute, serves its mission to help food and agriculture companies create high-impact sustainability outcomes. While Integrated Pest management (IPM) remains at the core of SFG expertise, the SFG team works with clients to develop holistic sustainable agriculture programs that go beyond Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and address broader aspects of sustainability and sustainable agriculture, like natural resource and energy conservation, soil health, climate and greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity and waste. Some services offered by SFG include pesticide-risk assessments; development, implementation and verification of sustainable agriculture supply chain programs and policies; Sustainability Standard certification and more. See Our Services page for more

Pesticide use extends far past agriculture. Schools, hospitals, daycare facilities, office buildings, restaurants, commercial spaces, homes, lawns and parks frequently apply chemicals to manage pests and weeds. The Sustainable Communities Group (SCG) is a branch of the IPM Institute that evolved out of our work promoting Integrated Pest Management (IPM) as a solution to public health concerns resulting from the presence of pests and the high-risk pesticides used to manage them that threaten human, pollinator and pet health, water quality and overall ecosystems. Sustainable Communities Group (SCG) strives to mitigate these risks by promoting IPM in public spaces.

Our projects are customized to fit our client’s priorities, goals and needs. The foundation of the programs we develop for clients comes from our expertise in IPM. However, our team possess additional expertise that allow natural resource and energy conservation, soil health, climate and emissions reduction, biodiversity protection, waste reduction and worker welfare and more to be incorporated into the program offerings we develop for our clients.

We have a 25 year history of working with food and agriculture companies, supply chains, farmers, public facilities and communities. Most of our clients are US-based with supply chains that span the globe.

We offer four certifications for different types of businesses and needs. Learn which certification is best for you:

Green Shield Certified

Green Shield Certified (GSC) offers certification and evaluation services for pest-management professionals, services and public buildings that are dedicated to effective pest-management practices with the least risk to people and the environment.

Sustainability Standard

The Sustainability Standard is a third-party certification for farms, facilities, packer/shippers and distributors to document and communicate performance across a range of sustainability issues including pest management, nutrient management, soil health, water and energy conservation, environmental protection, waste and recycling and worker welfare. It can be an add on to a food safety certification and both individual operations or groups of operations can certify.

Eco Certified Fruit Program (Eco Apple^TM)

The Eco Certified Fruit Program, also known as Eco Apple^TM certifies growers using ecological production practices in the Northeastern US. The standards were developed by the IPM Institute and are managed with input from growers, scientists and fruit experts.

TruEarth^TM

TruEarth was developed to achieve measurable reductions in the use of high-toxicity pesticides. This protocol builds upon the Red Tomato Eco Certified Fruit Program and collaborative partnerships with farmers, scientists and other agricultural professionals.  Through our work we hope to contribute to a bountiful supply of quality, local foods with minimal pesticide residues, and to improve our soil and water resources, wildlife biodiversity, farm worker safety, farm stability and farmland preservation in Minnesota and Wisconsin, USA.

In addition to these certification programs, Sustainable Food Group can also help your company develop a Custom Supply Chain Program. A custom program may be the best fit for your company if you have specific sustainability objectives that you are looking to develop, verify and/or report on over time. Read more about an example custom supply chain program, developed with Frontier Co-op, here.

Our position as a nonprofit organization grants us unique marketplace advantages in both the public and private sectors. It allows us to reach both private businesses and federal agencies. We are able to leverage this robust network to help our partner organizations achieve their goals.

“Pests” means any unwanted insects, plants, fungus (molds), and rodents.

“Pesticide” means any substance or mixture of substances designed or intended for use to prevent, destroy, repel or mitigate pests, or to be used as a plant growth regulator. Pesticides include, but are not limited to, insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and rodenticides, and certain pest-specific compounds of biological origin aimed at disrupting the life-cycle of the pest.