The Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW) is the leading global measure of farm animal welfare management, policy commitment, performance and disclosure in food companies. As the first global measure of company performance on farm animal welfare, BBFAW enables investors, companies, NGOs and other stakeholders to understand corporate practice and performance on farm animal welfare.
Chronos is the architect of, and secretariat for, The Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW).
BBFAW has transformed the way in which investors analyse and act on farm animal welfare, moving farm animal welfare from a niche ethical concern to one that is core to the way investors analyse food companies and assess how these companies are discharging their social and environmental obligations.
The Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare is designed to drive higher farm animal welfare standards in the world’s leading food businesses. It assesses company practice and company performance on farm animal welfare, providing companies with clear framework for improvement, and enabling investors, customers, consumers and NGOs to engage effectively with these companies on their practices and their performance on farm animal welfare.
Since its launch in 2012, the BBFAW has played a major role in driving improvements in corporate practice performance and reporting on farm animal welfare.
For example, over the past year the proportion of global companies reporting on farm animal welfare outcome measures increased from 59% to 72%.
Our surveys of companies confirm the Benchmark's importance, with companies pointing to BBFAW’s role in enabling them to compare their approach against industry peers, in providing a framework for reporting, attracting senior management attention and setting expectations.
BBFAW has transformed the way investors analyse and think about farm animal welfare in their investment practices and processes.
When the Benchmark started in 2012, very few investors were interested; the vast majority saw farm animal welfare primarily as an ethical rather than an investment issue. Now, many investors use the Benchmark and other materials produced by BBFAW in their company engagement and to assess the business risks and opportunities of farm animal welfare for individual companies and for the food sector as a whole.
This investor interest is widely acknowledged by global food companies as an important factor in encouraging them to adopt higher standards of farm animal welfare.
28 investors representing almost 3 trillion GBP in assets under management support the BBFAW Global Investor Collaboration on Farm Animal Welfare.
