Global Sustainability
Breeding decisions do not stop at the animal.
They influence the entire production chain.
In Work Package 2, we focus on understanding how breeding programs contribute to global sustainability goals and how these contributions can be made visible and actionable.
By linking genetic progress to broader system level effects, we aim to ensure that sustainability considerations become part of breeding program design and decision making.
Why it matters
Livestock production is expected to contribute to global sustainability goals while continuing to meet growing demand for animal protein.
This creates increasing pressure to reduce environmental impact, improve resource efficiency and demonstrate transparency towards society and stakeholders.
At the same time, the effects of breeding decisions are not immediately visible and often extend far beyond the animal itself into the wider production chain.
This makes it difficult to understand how breeding contributes to sustainability targets and how it should be prioritised within broader strategies.
What we do
Within Work Package 2, we work closely with industry partners to define how breeding programs can contribute to global sustainability goals.
The starting point of this work is collaboration. Together with partners, we identify which sustainability topics are most relevant in their specific context. This includes environmental impact, efficiency, resource use and broader societal expectations.
Based on these discussions, we translate sustainability ambitions into concrete breeding objectives and integrate them into scientific models and breeding program design. This ensures that sustainability is not treated as a separate topic, but becomes part of the core decision making process.
As the programme evolves, Work Package 2 develops and implements a structured approach to quantify the impact of breeding decisions across the production chain. This allows sustainability to be consistently embedded in breeding strategies and evaluated over time.
Impact
Work Package 2 enables breeding organisations to connect their breeding programs directly to corporate sustainability goals.
By making sustainability measurable and integrating it into breeding decisions, companies can better understand how genetic progress contributes to real world outcomes. This supports more transparent reporting, more targeted improvements and stronger alignment between strategy and practice.
Even small changes in breeding programs can have a significant impact downstream in the production chain. Work Package 2 helps to identify and quantify these effects, allowing organisations to make informed choices that contribute to long term environmental and societal goals.
Ultimately, Work Package 2 ensures that sustainability becomes an integral part of breeding program design, rather than an external requirement.