Farm Credit Canada Sustainable Finance Framework

Under the leadership of Justine Hendricks, Farm Credit Canada developed North America’s first sustainable finance framework for agriculture and food. The framework enables FCC to mobilize capital toward activities that support environmental, social and economic sustainability, helping strengthen the long-term resilience, productivity and competitiveness of Canada’s agriculture and food sector through a credible and independently validated approach.

Under CEO Justine Hendricks, Farm Credit Canada built North America’s first sustainable finance framework designed specifically for Canadian agriculture and food. The framework translates sustainability goals directly into lending decisions, backed by governance, impact measurement and external scientific validation. In its first year alone, FCC directed $237.2 million in financing aligned with the framework toward soil health, water management, climate solutions and on-farm resilience.

The gap this project closed wasn’t really about willingness. Producers and processors were often ready to adopt more sustainable practices, but the upfront cost created a real financial barrier, and Canadian agriculture lacked a consistent, credible way to define what “sustainable” meant in lending terms, which left both lenders and customers working without a shared standard. Developed over 2 years, FCC built the framework to close that gap directly, in support of its own commitment to invest $1.9 billion in sustainable finance by 2030.

The objectives were specific from the outset: define what actually qualifies as sustainable finance in Canadian agriculture and food, build science-based eligibility criteria around that definition, establish real governance and risk management processes, and enable transparent, consistent reporting. Prior to developing the framework, the Sustainability team at FCC benchmarked leading sustainable finance frameworks, market standards, emerging regulations and international taxonomies, and studied the sustainability risks and opportunities specific to Canadian farming and food processing. The research confirmed there was no existing framework built for Canadian agriculture and food realities, a finding that shaped nearly every design choice that followed.

Building the framework meant working from the eligibility criteria outward. The team drew on international standards, the Canadian Sustainable Agriculture Strategy, industry best practice and subject-matter-expert consultation to develop criteria that were credible without being impractical, then brought in independent scientific experts to validate the environmental thresholds and tested qualifying activities with both internal and external stakeholders. With the criteria set, the team, led by Amr Addas alongside Kaleigh Brinkhurst and Adam Kehler, designed the governance, risk management, reporting and impact measurement methodology needed to apply the framework consistently, then integrated it directly into FCC’s existing lending channels and procedures.

Setting science-based eligibility criteria and impact metrics required balancing scientific rigour against usability. This involved defining “sustainable agriculture” in a way that worked across different sectors and operation types, while staying practical enough for a producer or processor to act. Building a framework that satisfied multiple stakeholders while tracking evolving global standards also meant recalibration. The FCC Sustainability team used iterative design and independent scientific review to keep refining the framework as real input was captured, while working closely with governance and reporting teams to establish clear and rigorous processes for monitoring and transparent reporting of sustainable finance activities and outcomes.

External expertise shaped the framework at nearly every stage. Deloitte supported the initial research and built the first version of the framework, Sustainalytics provided a second-party opinion, Ernst & Young supported implementation, the Environmental Defense Fund conducted an independent scientific review, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada contributed a stakeholder review, alongside numerous industry associations consulting along the way.

The results moved past the framework itself and into actual capital deployment. Within the $237.2 million of sustainable financing deployed in FY 2025/26, FCC launched its Sustainability Capital Investment Program (SCIP), putting $93 million into 95 projects by the end of March 2026. Every approved activity is tracked through an Impact Measurement and Management model that verifies environmental and social outcomes. Results from SCIP are now informing FCC’s deployment of higher risk capital while enabling the adoption of sustainable practices that contribute to building long-term resilience. The framework itself is reviewed and updated every two years to keep pace with evolving science and regulation, and FCC is now working with other Canadian financial institutions to leverage the framework into a national Sustainable Agriculture Taxonomy.

What makes this project exceptional is not only what it achieved, but what it made possible. By transforming ambition into action and creating an impactful framework that others can follow, it has accelerated progress toward a more sustainable future for Canadian agriculture. The lasting value of this work lies in its ability to inspire investment, enable adoption, and create measurable outcomes that benefit producers, the industry, and future generations alike.