News

Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC) is excited to announce our new director of agricultural engineering, Brian Severin. As the director of agricultural engineering, he will be working closely with our agricultural compliance and engineering team, guiding strategy and opportunity development. Creating designs that work with client operation strategies to achieve goals is something Brian is very passionate about.

McCarty Family Farms has been in the dairy business for more than a century. Originating in northeast Pennsylvania with Taylor McCarty, the farming operation has evolved over four generations, allowing more of the family to be involved and diversifying their enterprises. Looking for opportunities to grow, the farm eventually moved 21 years ago to northwest Kansas, establishing McCarty Dairy in Rexford in 2000. In 2011, the farm began an industry-first collaboration with Danone North America. The following year, they completed a one-of-a-kind evaporative milk condensing plant on the farm.

Originally released from TriplePundit 3.29.2021. Regenerative agriculture is beginning to gain a stronger foothold in the mainstream market, and the Danone North America family of dairy brands is setting out to accelerate and scale up the trend. The firm’s five-year demonstration program launched just three years ago, and it has already tripled in size, covering over 80,000 acres in the U.S. and Canada.

Originally released from U.S. Farmers & Ranchers in Action 3.23.2021.  St. Louis, March 23, 2021 – U.S. Farmers & Ranchers in Action (USFRA) is celebrating National Ag Day by announcing the growing list of companies, organizations and individuals who have joined the Decade of Ag, the first sector-wide movement to align to a shared vision for the next decade centered around investing in the next generation of agricultural systems, restoring our environment, regenerating natural resources and in doing so, strengthening the social and economic fabric of America.

[Article and photo originally published on Retail TouchPoints 2.24.2021] Consumers want to know about the paths their food and drinks take from the farm to their pantry. And they want this pathway to feature sustainable choices by food producers, and for those choices to appear clearly on food packaging and branding. With the pandemic driving more people to focus on health and eating at home, there’s a further demand for sustainably sourced food and better food production choices.

[Article and photo originally published on GreenBiz 2.23.2021] By Jesse Klein, Contributor, GreenBiz.com   A few years into Danone’s and General Mills’ regenerative agriculture pilots, one thing has become clear: It’s about data collection. Holistically changing our agriculture system to become more sustainable comes later.“We really don’t have a great understanding of what happens when farmers…

[Article and photo originally published on Food Technology Magazine 2.1.2021] Tomorrow’s grain rows, vegetable fields, and specialty crop groves will be much busier places than the relatively passive acreage of yesterday. On the surface, sensors built into crops will signal soil conditions; digital irrigation systems will precisely direct water streams; and robotic guardians will pull weeds. In the air above, satellites and drones will photograph plants with enough precision to count the spots on a ladybug’s wing. In the soil below, new wonders of botanical manipulation and digital information will optimize available nutrients, elevate plant performance, and store results.

[Article and photo originally published on Industry Today 12.22.2020]   Consumer demand calls for food and beverage retailers to ensure brands they carry are sustainably sourced. Many of today’s food and beverage retailers offer sustainable products for their customers. For many, it’s an essential business practice. Today’s consumers demand to know that the journey of…

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. and BROOMFIELD, Colo., Dec. 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Danone North America, the purpose-driven food & beverage leader with a diverse portfolio of dairy and plant-based brands, continues to expand its regenerative farming program, currently the most comprehensive regenerative agriculture dairy program in the U.S. The company unveiled today its year three results from its multi-year, multi-million-dollar soil health research program. Launched in 2017, the soil health initiative brings together experts and academics to build best-in-class soil health programs to benefit farms and communities across the Danone North America portfolio. Now completing its third year, the research program has nearly tripled to more than 82,000 acres, inclusive of 28,000 organic acres, across the U.S. and Canada, and has recently expanded into almond orchards in the central valley of California.

Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC) would like to congratulate and highlight the recipients of our first ever Sustainable Environmental Consultants 4-H and National FFA Organization Sponsorship. This $250 sponsorship is gifted to individuals who are actively involved in their local 4-H club and/or FFA chapter, demonstrate a passion for agriculture, and exhibit a desire to grow in personal and professional development. The 2020 recipients are Ethan Kneisler and Allie Kneisler.

[Article and photo originally published on Retail IT Insights 11.25.2020] Today’s consumers demand to know the “farm to fork” journey of their food choices. They expect safe and affordable foods that are marketed with transparent claims about environmental impacts and sustainability. The pandemic accelerated the consumer demand for sustainably sourced food and beverage products because…

Originally released on November 17, 2020. Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), a leader in providing innovative environmental responsibility solutions, celebrates the five year anniversary of EcoPractices®, an independent, third-party verification and validation platform that blends science with state-of-the-art technology to assess supply chain sustainability risk and quantify key sustainability performance indicators. EcoPractices provides food organizations, their…

Originally released from Iowa Soybean Association 9.17.20.  Ankeny, Iowa — Farmers in Iowa, Illinois, and Ohio will soon benefit from a new partnership between the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS). The Ag Technology and Environmental Stewardship Foundation (AgTech), a subsidiary of the Iowa Soybean Association, and…

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a worldwide health and economic crisis. In a post COVID-19 world, moving to a sustainable, regenerative and resilient global food supply system will be critical. The novel coronavirus pandemic has made us realize that “business-as-usual” is no longer an option.

Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC) agricultural compliance and engineering division conducts soil sampling to meet a variety of testing protocols, including local Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) guidelines. The sampling process begins by mapping the designated fields.

Sustainability risk management starts with identifying and understanding risks and opportunities associated with value chain emissions. On-farm and in-field management play a role in setting reduction targets and tracking performance around all partners and parties for supply chain activities essential for greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting. With our EcoPractices platform®, Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC) provides third-party verification and quantification that fulfills the guidelines of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol for assessing Scope 3 emissions.

An apiarist (honey beekeeper) for over 40 years, I am the creator and owner of Gogo’s Bee Company. My passion for beekeeping all started with the pursuit of my beekeeping merit badge as a Boy Scout.

Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC) powered by EcoPractices® was awarded the ‘Innovation Award’ by Danone North America at their sixth annual Dairy Forum in February in San Diego, California.

Using wood chips from trees decimated by the emerald ash borer, two Iowa companies have partnered to install edge-of-field conservation bioreactors, designed to filter nutrients and benefit Iowa’s water quality.

Growers Edge will leverage SEC’s EcoPractices® platform, which assesses value chain sustainability risk and provides independent, third-party verification for growers, as well as food and beverage companies. The collaboration will allow the Growers Edge fintech analytics platform to accurately assess value chain sustainability risk and track environmental impact to reduce sustainability risks from farm to fork.

Wright Outdoor Solutions and Sustainable Environmental Consultants, two companies headquartered out of West Des Moines, Iowa, have partnered to provide sustainable solutions for local wood waste by producing mulch and building bioreactors.

Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), a leader in providing innovative environmental responsibility solutions, announces the rollout of EcoPractices® 3.0. EcoPractices is SEC’s independent, third-party verification and validation platform that uses science with state-of-the-art technology to assess supply chain sustainability risk and quantify key sustainability performance indicators. The platform provides food organizations with a data-driven solution to reach its sustainability and regenerative goals.

Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), an innovative sustainability solutions provider, is pleased to announce the launch of its new website at sustainableenviro.com. SEC has recently organized its portfolio of service offerings into three divisions, including Sustainability Risk Management, Agricultural Compliance and Engineering, and Erosion Control.

Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), a leader in providing innovative environmental responsibility solutions throughs its three divisions of Sustainability Risk Management, Agricultural Engineering and Compliance and Erosion Control, is pleased to announce Doug McCorkle, Ph.D. and Gabe McNunn, Ph.D., have joined the team as chief science officer and data science engineer respectively.

Originally released from Danone North America 3.7.2018.    Brings together a ‘dream team’ of expertise in the study of soil health, applicable to all agricultural systems in The Dannon Pledge portfolio of brands Begins with research that will spur transformation to support best-in-class soil health programs with experts and academics to benefit our farms and…