Making an impact with Bonsucro - new report

I recently celebrated my second-year anniversary at Bonsucro which coincides with the launch of our latest Outcome Report 2019. Reflecting on the last two years, I feel a great sense of pride about the positive impacts we have achieved together and the commitment of our members to a sustainable sugarcane sector.

I’ve seen Bonsucro grow steadily and over the last two years we have exceeded our targets for new members and new certifications. Last year, 29 new mills were certified, and we reached new origins including Peru and Costa Rica. We welcomed members from new countries such as Poland, Portugal and Ecuador. Let us hope that these gains can be maintained as we look to beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, and plan for a more resilient economy and green recovery.

Each year, we analyse audit data to understand the on-the ground impacts from Bonsucro certification and publish it in our outcome report. The data that Bonsucro certified mills report on includes their greenhouse gas emissions, water efficiency, agrochemical use as well as social indicators such as worker safety and access to water.

The Outcome Report explores these issues in depth, so I encourage you to have a look. We have also summarised highlights into digital content to use to celebrate our members’ collective success. Feel free to share them.

Looking through the figures, I’m struck the immediate improvements that certification offers. After just one year of Bonsucro certification greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by an average of 5.5%, minimum wages increase and water use decreases. In 2019, 4.9 million tonnes of sugar generated 2.2 million m3 less water than in 2017. We also know that sustainability performance continues to improve and track key metrics. We report that farm-workers earn on average 20% above national minimum wages.

Although Bonsucro is most known for our certification system, we also invest in programme work at origins across the world. In the past year, these investments more than doubled and we are working on a wider variety of issues. We have enjoyed partnerships with fellow ISEAL members Fairtrade International, the Better Cotton Initiative and the Alliance for Water Stewardship.

Smallholder sugarcane farmers, so vital to the supply chain and to sustainability goals. Over the past couple of years, we have run projects in Thailand, India and Pakistan to support mills and smallholder farmers apply the Bonsucro Standard and develop plans for improvement.

In Brazil, we partnered with the Earth Innovation Institute and Agroicone to study how best to align with the new Brazilian biofuel policy, Renovabio, to help decrease Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions. It’s an exciting opportunity and this year, we are piloting joint audits.

As our project work has expanded, we have dedicated more space to them on our website – I encourage you to take a look and see the full scope of our work.

I’m keen to share the message that the impressive data in our report comes because our members invest in sustainability. Bonsucro is a facilitator – a network of organisations and people who come together to create a powerful global platform for change. This community is one of my favourite aspects of Bonsucro. In 2019, we called for input on key policies and procedures, and I was repeatedly impressed by the time, interest and thoughtful feedback that we received.

Our members inputs helped us to develop our new code of conduct and consulted on our Production Standard revision. I’d like to take this opportunity to reiterate that we are listening to all that you have to say. We are starting work on our next strategy, which I’m sure will help us deliver even more value to members and the wider sector.

As the realities of life with COVID-19 in our communities start to emerge, we must prioritise sustainability in all our operations. With the launch of our outcome report we can celebrate some of the success of 2019, but we also remind you that we are here to help you. We are committed to supporting our members and ensure that producer communities thrive and that sugarcane supply chains are resilient.