In a recent project to foster sustainable practices in agriculture, SRK has been working with Bonsucro and other stakeholders to develop a practical way for financial institutions to better understand and incentivise their clients in the agriculture sector.
The Good Practice, Better Finance project also involves SA Canegrowers, Cotton South Africa, the Better Cotton Initiative, Alliance for Water Stewardship, WWF and Nedbank. SRK’s main partner in this initiative, Bonsucro, is the sustainability standards body for the global sugar industry, while Cotton South Africa is the local partner for implementing the Better Cotton Initiative.
The important aspect of this diverse, multi-stakeholder group is that it includes players who are integrally involved in developing and applying sustainability standards. Funding for the project was provided by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), channelled through the Innovation Fund of the global sustainability standards group ISEAL.
As the leading global sustainability platform and standard for sugarcane, Bonsucro works toward accelerating the sustainable production and uses of sugarcane. It convenes over 270 members from more than 50 countries to address critical challenges in the sugarcane sector, driving performance and impact through its system of sustainability standards.
Similarly, Cotton South Africa promotes the Better Cotton Standard locally, a standard which underpins almost a quarter of the world’s cotton production. Through the Better Cotton Initiative, over 2.4 million cotton farmers have been trained globally in sustainable farming practices and are licensed to grow Better Cotton. The focus is on equipping cotton farmers and workers to cope with climate change, threats to the environment, global pandemics and other sustainability challenges.
SRK brought its experience in the due diligence space to the project, in particular its expertise in environmental and social reviews and due diligence for financial institutions and other clients. Its mandate was to bring together the relevant sustainability standards – in this case those applying to sugar and cotton production and the transactional needs of lenders and farmers. The result was a tool which can help to assess the environmental and social risks associated with agricultural projects in these segments.
Read the full article in Why Africa.
