Deforestation-free cattle: communication for the GTFI

The Indirect Suppliers Working Group (GTFI) was created in 2015 to develop ways of monitoring meatpackers' indirect suppliers, the link in the beef supply chain where deforestation is concentrated. For years, the group worked almost in secret. In 2020, under pressure from international markets, it began to communicate, but without guidelines. It was a forum of many actors with different interests, technical topics and a small communication team, which had to speak to meatpackers who feel accused, ranchers who don't feel represented and NGOs that disagree with its criteria.

We carried out an assessment with desk research and interviews and delivered a lean plan, designed to fit the team's routine. It sets key lines for each audience segment, a voice guide, protocols for reviewing content, choosing newsletter topics and recording the forum's consensus, and rules so that companies can communicate their participation without putting the group's credibility at risk.

In parallel, we turned the subject into pieces. The Map of Tools organized the available traceability and monitoring solutions, in Portuguese and English. Four newsletters covered GTFI's media presence, its annual meeting and the debates at COP27. Two infographics explained the GTFI Good Practices, and an animation showed, in plain language, how indirect supplier monitoring works.

GTFI now has written communication guidelines and a set of pieces in two languages to engage with the Brazilian and international markets.