Benchmark your sustainability standard with the Farm Sustainability Assessment

The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform recently updated the Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA), a continuous improvement programme that allows companies to benchmark their voluntary sustainability standards against a set of robust criteria. The programme is to help support the transition to sustainable agriculture practices globally.

Agriculture and the production of agricultural commodities is a vital industry that feeds billions of people and animals every day. Global production practices vary depending on the crop or livestock production system and geographical region. Whilst some practices can enhance and promote sustainable agriculture, other practices have negative impacts, such as on the climate, soil health, food security, food nutrition, water resource, biodiversity etc.

To improve the sustainability of agricultural practices and positively contribute towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, voluntary sustainability standards have been developed, which address specific social, environmental, climate and economic sustainability metrics.

Comparing voluntary sustainability standards

Generally, voluntary standards are developed, marketed, and implemented by private organisations or non-governmental organizations and are structured to support improvements across production practices by key stakeholders in the value chain, both upstream and downstream from farmer through to retailer. Many of these standards have associated certification and logo branding, which is allocated against the commodity or product to demonstrate and confirm successful compliance against a set of specific criteria.

Due to the broad scope of voluntary sustainability standards, which differ depending on commodity, regional, and geographical implementation, there is a high degree of variation between the quality, comprehensiveness, and requirements of each standard, making them difficult to compare.

Development of the FSA

To alleviate this and provide more streamlined comparability regarding the degree of robustness within sustainability standards, SAI developed the FSA. The FSA is structured to benchmark sustainability standards against a comprehensive set of criteria which enables a standardised assessment across a broad range of standards, both in terms of commodity, geography, structure, and criterion.

The FSA questions and criteria cover a broad scope of requirements including:

• environment (e.g., Air Quality and Emissions, Biodiversity, Nutrient Management),
• farm management (e.g. Chemical Control, Farm Management and Community, Integrated Pest Management, Soil Management, Plant Material Selection and Propagation, Waste Management, Waste Management),
• social (e.g. Labour Conditions.)

Sustainability benchmarking with the the help of ADAS

ADAS is a approved benchmarking consultant for SAI Platform and conduct benchmarking of client’s voluntary sustainability standards to the latest FSA 3.0 continuous improvement system. ADAS offer two options for the benchmarking services:

• Option 1 – Benchmark is prepared by client, then reviewed and validated by ADAS.
• Option 2 – ADAS conducts the full benchmark in liaison with the client.

Upon completion of the initial benchmark review, we provide feedback to the client regarding the banding outcome (Not Yet Bronze, Bronze, Silver, Gold) and advisory on what action is required to achieve the desired banding output and support to navigate towards attaining that banding level.

Previous client feedback

Recent clients have included Cargill, Red Tractor, The VIVE Programme, GELAGRI IBÉRICA, and the Sustainability Initiative of South Africa (SIZA) who said:

“We previously benchmarked our SIZA Standards (Social and Environmental) to FSA version 2, which achieved Gold equivalence and was seen positively by our clients, as the SAI FSA is recognised globally. Upgrading to version 3 allowed us to reflect and upgrade our standard at the same time, which resulted in achieving Gold equivalence again. With the incredible support of Ionie-Lee at ADAS, who undertook the full benchmark process for us, we were able to provide the information needed to complete the process in a timely manner. Ionie-Lee was transparent, and maintained a friendly and supportive role throughout the process, which made the experience incredibly positive.”

Red Tractor said:

“It was great working with ADAS, who assisted Red Tractor in our work to benchmark the Red Tractor Crops and Sugar Beet standard to FSA 3.0. Their support has allowed us to continue demonstrating compliance with FSA’s Silver SAI Platform banding and provided value for Red Tractor Crops and Sugar Beet scheme members.”

Natividad Luqui from GELAGRI IBÉRICA, said:

“Benchmarking our standard, the VECONATUR to the farm sustainability assessment provides our clients with reassurance that the practices they undertake are conducive with an aligned set of sustainability criteria. We completed the draft benchmark, which was then validated by ADAS. This process was efficient and allowed us to utilise our knowledge of our standard to set out how it meets the criteria of FSA.”

ADAS supports SAI Platform to promote sustainable agriculture through working with key industry stakeholders collaborating to overcome challenges across the agricultural sector in a pre-competitive environment.