Reward Sustainable Behaviour 

In 2015, TrustBIX created the Beef InfoXchange System (BIX), the backbone technology platform for McDonald’s first Verified Sustainable Beef Pilot program.  This very first system in the world was tested in Canada and has successfully demonstrated full traceability from “birth to burger.”  During the Pilot, 144 producer operations were verified as sustainably managed. 

The BIX system was used to validate that only sustainable operations handled the animal before it was harvested. In total, during the pilot, the BIX platform verified a total of 8,967 head, and from this, according to McDonald’s, the company sourced over 300,000 pounds of Canadian beef.

Now it's a full-time Program with multiple participants, like McDonald’s, Chop Steakhouse, Cactus Club Cafe, and many more. We thank all the responsible customers for their support and for helping to set the standard for certified sustainable beef production in Canada.

The next stage in the evolution of a sustainable Canadian beef supply chain was to add the payment of an incentive. The idea was to pay per head for sustainably-sourced animals to producers with verified sustainable operations, and where an animal moved through only verified operations before it was harvested.  This “all-or-none” Incentive Model encouraged participants to understand to whom they were moving an animal, and got verified operations to encourage downstream operations to also get verified as sustainable. 

The Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (CRSB), comprised of industry leaders (including Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, JBS, Cargill, McDonald’s, Costco, Ducks Unlimited and World Wildlife Fund), set the guidelines of what indicators are used to measure sustainability. 

The Incentive Model was tested over 8 quarters in the Canadian Beef Sustainability Acceleration (CBSA) Pilot, which was created in partnership with Cargill. The Pilot ran between late 2017 and late 2019, and the BIX system was used to validate that a verified sustainable chain of custody was preserved for animals supplied to Cargill. Where Chain of Custody was validated, TrustBIX also managed the settlement of incentive payments made by Cargill back to all operations in the upstream supply chain that touched the animal, and these payments were around $18 per head for each of the Quarters the pilot operated. 

In 2020, McDonald’s has expanded its commitment to source Canadian Sustainable beef for Quarter Pounders sold in Canada, and Cargill has commercialized the Pilot into an ongoing Sustainable Sourcing Program, where the BIX platform is used to validate sustainable Chain of Custody.

To learn more about our accomplishments in the Beef Industry, read on about “Canada’s Beef Advantage” at the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association website here. 

Beef is not the only sector that requires enhanced traceability and sustainability. Pork and poultry, peas and lentils – consumers of all these products deserve to be part of a value chain they can trust. That's why we're expanding our area of focus. Contact us by filling out the form below to learn more.