Combining eco-social and environmental indicators to assess the sustainability performance of a food value chain: A case study

Stakeholders are increasingly demanding transparency on food value chain sustainability performance. Today there is no standard framework to meet this demand and support defining indicators to be used to conduct an overall sustainable performance assessment. This paper mobilizes existing frameworks and indicators to build new sustainable performance metrics for actors willing to work together for their value chain sustainability. Popular methods or tools for assessing dimensions of agrifood products or activities are selected and analyzed to determine how they could contribute to this metric. The analysis aims to distinguish the sustainable development pillars addressed (economic, environmental and/or social), the frames concerned (life cycle thinking or not; multi-actor or not), and the focus of performance measured (drivers, pressures, states, impacts, responses). This categorization is then used to develop a proposal for specifications adapted to food value chain sustainability performance assessment. The applicability of the framework is demonstrated through a case study in a pork agrifood value chain.