Community Groups

Objective:

The GS1 Canada Cannabis Community Work Group (Work Group) brings together industry stakeholders to collaboratively address non-competitive supply chain challenges through the adoption of GS1 global standards and GS1 Canada Industry Managed Solutions (IMSs).

By establishing a common framework for product identification, traceability, and data sharing, the Work Group enhances interoperability between trading partners, supports regulatory compliance, and fosters a more efficient and transparent cannabis supply chain. Through industry-wide collaboration, the Work Group aims to drive operational efficiencies, reduce barriers to trade, enable innovation within the sector, and ensure alignment with global best practices, ultimately supporting the long-term growth and integrity of the Canadian cannabis market.

Purpose and Accountability:

The purpose of the Work Group is to utilize and leverage a neutral, non-competitive forum for the Canadian cannabis industry to identify business requirements and needs that can be supported by GS1 global supply chain standards and supporting IMSs to achieve common goals. Through education, established (and potentially new) IMSs, and an official community management process, the Work Group will work together to create supply chain efficiencies in this growing and evolving industry and achieve consensus and alignment on Work Group objectives. In February of 2025, the Work Group identified the following Focus Topics:

• Standardized & Centralized Data
  • Ensuring cannabis product data and images can be seamlessly identified, captured, and shared between industry trading partners.
• Excise Tax Stamp Complexity
  • Outline possible solutions to help support the digitization of the physical cannabis Excise Tax Stamp.
• Product Traceability
  • Enable product traceability through implementation of GS1 standards and solutions to aid in a more transparent supply chain, including but not limited to product withdrawals and recalls.
• Regulatory Compliance Support
  • Aid industry in navigating new and existing regulatory challenges with the support of Global Standards and seeking out opportunities where the GS1 Global standards and supporting IMSs can enable a more efficient process to meet certain regulatory requirements.
• Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG)
  • Discover the current and future needs of the cannabis industry in respect of domestic and international ESG desires and obligations.
• Standards Best Practices
  • Support industry adoption of Global Standards to create a more efficient supply chain.

Objectives:

The Collaborative Commerce Committee (Committee) has been established to empower the Canadian industry by:

• Facilitating the realization of industry value through a comprehensive understanding of the functional requirements to implement business and product content needs.
• Identifying the requisite business and product content specifications crucial for supporting the evolving demands of the industry, including those influenced by existing or emerging regulations.

Purpose:

By facilitating implementation within their organizations, members of the Committee will pave the way towards maximizing industry value. Leveraging data standards and sharing capabilities ensures a strong, stable foundation, fostering efficient and effective value creation. With standardized product content, companies can effortlessly share high-quality and accurate product information across all markets, enriching the experience for consumers and patients. Acting as both champions for their individual organizations and advocates for the industry at large, the Committee embodies a collective effort towards greater success and innovation.

Objective:

In 2021, the Digital Commerce Executive Forum (Forum) was launched to deliver to the ever-evolving non-competitive digital needs of the industry. The Forum is to support best-in-class digital transformation across the Canadian industry to enhance the consumer shopping and dining experience.

The Forum will support the enablement of digital strategies and operations, under GS1 Canada’s cost recovery model, with:

• Speed to market and efficiencies under GS1 Canada’s one-to-many operating model.
• The highest data quality levels for digital content available from a single platform.
• The ability to meet trading partner requirements and help support regulatory compliance in such industries as grocery and foodservice, among others.

Purpose and Accountability:

Evolve our industry-directed solutions and enable stakeholders to maximize opportunities while overcoming challenges. As directed by industry, the Forum will:

• Inform and iterate GS1 Canada’s digital commerce strategy.
• Identify non-competitive issues and business requirements that require standardized industry solutions.
• Establish implementation work groups to support the identification and execution of requirements and tactics aligned on by industry, including:
  • Identifying required work groups, their potential member composition and scope of work.
  • Identifying the need for specific task groups consisting of subject matter experts to solve specific problems.
  • Monitoring the progress of the work/task groups.

Objective:

The objective of the GS1 Canada Digital Commerce Work Group (Work Group) is to:

• Define the business need and scope to support the strategic initiatives approved by the Digital Commerce Executive Forum (Forum).
• Understand industry’s barriers and challenges as they relate to the strategic initiatives.
• Report back to the Forum and provide a feasibility assessment and implementation roadmap for each of the priorities.

Purpose and Accountability:

The purpose of the Work Group is to review and evaluate each strategic priority approved by the Forum. Through collaboration, members will align on business requirements and together define, prioritize and execute on an industry lead Digital Commerce roadmap. The approach of the Work Group will include two phases:

1. a high-level understanding and feasibility assessment of the current priorities
2. a detailed implementation roadmap

Objectives:

The objective of the GS1 Canada Foodservice Executive Forum (Forum) is to support and drive the foodservice industry forward, ensuring that the IMS created for industry by industry align with current and future needs.

Purpose and Accountability:

As a member of the Forum, you will:

1. Provide thought leadership to guide innovation, drive efficiency, and increase guest satisfaction by promoting the adoption of foodservice IMS.
2. Drive value chain integration and digitization of supply chains to increase customer satisfaction, traceability, and on-time delivery utilizing GS1 standards.
3. Integrated marketing, certification, and nutritional content across channels for better brand storytelling and a consistent brand experience, whether online or in the dining room utilizing ECCnet content.
4. Automate content flow with GS1 Canada IMS throughout the foodservice supply chain and digital commerce ecosystem, accelerating omnichannel information exchange.

Objectives:

The foodservice sector has dramatically changed in the last several years; the industry is experiencing knowledge and process gaps, due to our post pandemic business environment and the industries rapid need for digitization.

The objective of GS1 Canada’s Foodservice Work Group (Work Group) is to ensure the IMS (Industry Managed Solution) created for industry by industry aligns with current and future needs. Ultimately enabling the foodservice industry to support a digitized, frictionless & resilient supply chain.

Purpose and Accountability:

The Work Group reports to GS1 Canada’s Foodservice Executive Forum (Forum) and will undertake discovery for the focus areas as agreed upon by Forum members. Outcomes and decisions from these Work Group meetings will be reported to the Forum on an ongoing basis. As a member of the Work Group, you will:

• Standards - educate industry on available Global Standards to advance Foodservice into the Future.
• Content Optimization - complete Community Review process and formalize business needs for Digital Commerce and Nutritional Content.
• Thought Leadership - provide thought leadership on current dining and consumer behaviour trends.

Vision:

Every patient record incorporates the common GS1 global supply chain language (standards) and accurate data that establish the foundation for patient safety; best possible patient outcomes; robust analytics (clinical outcomes, value-based procurement); safe, effective product recall management; cost savings; and operational efficiencies.

Purpose and Accountability:

The GS1 Canada Healthcare Deployment Committee (“Committee”) is representative of clinical and non-clinical leaders across healthcare providers, shared services organizations, group purchasing organizations, manufacturers, distributors, long term care operators and solution providers. The Committee is an action-oriented collaboration that will enable peer-to-peer engagement and sharing of global standards. Discussions will be based on leading practices, development and promotion of standards education tools and resources that support all healthcare stakeholders in implementing global standards that support a clinically integrated supply chain.

The Committee reports to and is accountable to the GS1 Canada Healthcare Board.

Objective:

The GS1 Canada Nutrition Work Group (Work Group) is an industry-driven community group dedicated to improving the accuracy, accessibility, and compliance of nutritional data in Canada. Bringing together subject matter experts, the group addresses business and regulatory challenges, fosters digital transformation, and ensures consumer trust. By establishing standardized, validated, and industry-accepted nutrition data practices, the Work Group helps businesses navigate evolving regulations and streamline implementation across Retail and Foodservice sectors.

The Work Group aims to:

• Establish and maintain industry standards for nutritional data accuracy and compliance with regulations and industry needs.
• Facilitate collaboration between manufacturers, retailers, foodservice providers, and regulatory bodies.
• Develop and refine certification models for complex product categories, including multi-nutrition and variety packs.
• Support digital transformation by aligning nutritional content management with e-commerce and regulatory frameworks.
• Address non-compliant data issues through standardized resolution methodologies and enhanced validation frameworks.

Key priorities are as below:

• Multi-Nutrition & Variety Pack Standardization:
  • Drive industry consensus on certification requirements and data validation frameworks.
  • Develop methodologies to ensure consistent and accurate nutritional content capture.
  • Align standards with digital commerce and regulatory reporting requirements.
• Foodservice Nutritional Data Enhancement:
  • Establish a validated data hierarchy, prioritizing packaging, specification sheets, and enhanced validation processes.
  • Define business requirements and technical feasibility for implementation by 2026.
  • Formalize industry-supported governance models for ongoing compliance.
• Non-Compliant Data Governance:
  • Implement standardized methodologies to detect and address non-compliant data.
  • Enhance validation frameworks to ensure the highest level of data accuracy and completeness.
  • Secure industry-wide adoption of enhanced compliance measures.
• Regulatory & Industry Alignment:
  • Ensure alignment with Canadian and international regulatory frameworks.
  • Collaborate with Health Canada and industry bodies to proactively address emerging compliance requirements.
  • Streamline industry response mechanisms to evolving regulatory changes.

Purpose and Accountability:

The Work Group is committed to evolving industry-directed solutions, enabling stakeholders to maximize opportunities while overcoming challenges. As directed by industry, the Work Group will:

• Inform and refine GS1 Canada’s digital commerce strategy.
• Identify non-competitive issues and business requirements that require standardized industry solutions.
• Establish implementation workgroups to define and execute industry-aligned strategies, including:
  • Identifying necessary workgroups, their potential composition, and scope of work.
  • Forming specialized task groups of subject matter experts to address specific challenges.
  • Monitoring the progress and effectiveness of workgroups and task forces to ensure successful execution.
• Establish and incorporate nutrition business requirements into ECCnet Registry and ECCnet Product Certification for seamless data synchronization.
• Provide industry with standardized Implementation Guidelines (IGs) to support compliance and best practices.

Vision:

Every patient record incorporates the common GS1 global supply chain language (standards) and accurate data that establish the foundation for patient safety; best possible patient outcomes; robust analytics (clinical outcomes, value-based procurement); safe, effective product recall management; cost savings; and operational efficiencies.

Purpose and Accountability:

The Pharmacy Deployment Committee (Committee) works to enhance patient safety and system-wide efficiencies in pharmacy through GS1 global standards-based leading practices and peer-to-peer sharing for the pharmacy community. This Committee looks to accurately identify medications at each stage of the pharmacy supply chain through automation and global standards adoption for positive change.

The Committee reports to and is accountable to the GS1 Canada Healthcare Board.

Objective:

There are significant efforts taking place already in Canada to prepare industry to be compliant with the legislation already passed and legislation expected to come.

From an implementation perspective, data standards and sharing capabilities will ensure a consistent foundation for industry to achieve regulatory compliance in an efficient and transparent manner. The development of non-competitive data standards will be useful across many areas including transition to EPR (extended producer responsibility), expanding DRS (deposit returns scheme), single use plastics and the national plastics registry.

GS1 Canada’s Sustainability Executive Forum (Forum) is active with senior-level experts from across multiple industries. The goal of the Forum is to drive better environmental outcomes for organizations by using data to underpin the circularity transition, and sustainability goals. The Forum will also:

• Confirm industry priorities, strategy and future roadmap in areas such as plastics waste, product waste (including food, healthcare product, pharmaceutical) and EPR reporting.
• Review federal and provincial strategies and regulations.
• Monitor global activities in this space.

Purpose and Accountability:

GS1 Canada has an unprecedented and globally unique opportunity to be the strategic partner for accelerating Canadian environmental, social and governance (ESG) requirements through our existing core roles, operating principles, and assets. GS1 Canada is working across Canadian industry to support ESG requirements by:

• Standardizing the ESG data model and reporting requirements across jurisdictions.
• Enabling regulatory compliance and trading partner ESG requirements by building on 25 years of industry’s investment and commitment to ECCnet Registry (Canada’s National Registry).
• Enabling fit for purpose, quality data to be shared on a many-to-many basis, continuing to save time and money for the industry.
• Authenticating ESG and sustainability claims, certification and audits.

Objectives:

ECCnet National Registry will be leveraged to identify, capture and share required information. Canadian industry can utilize this information to support government regulations and trading partner reporting. ESG is an important aspect of GS1 Canada’s 2025-2027 strategy with sustainability as a priority topic.

From an implementation perspective, data standards and sharing capabilities will ensure a consistent foundation for industry to achieve regulatory compliance in an efficient and transparent manner. The development of non-competitive data standards will be useful across many areas including transition to EPR (extended producer responsibility), expanding DRS (deposit returns scheme), single use plastics and the national plastics registry.

Purpose and Accountability:

GS1 Canada has an unprecedented and globally unique opportunity to be the strategic partner for accelerating Canadian environmental, social and governance (ESG) requirements through our existing core roles, operating principles, and assets. GS1 Canada is working across Canadian industry to support ESG requirements by:

• Standardizing the ESG data model and reporting requirements across jurisdictions.
• Enabling compliance to regulatory and trading partner ESG requirements by building on 25 years of industry investments and commitment to ECCnet Registry (Canada’s National Registry).
• Enabling fit for purpose, quality data to be shared on a many-to-many basis, continuing to save time and money for the industry.
• Authentication of ESG and sustainability claims, certification and audits.