ESG analysis on-farm: a practical framework to support Australian producers
Conference Publication ResearchOnline@JCUAbstract
Increased pressures for a more sustainable agricultural development model has seen interest in ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) grow rapidly. ESG frameworks and standards were designed to support industry and organisations to assess and report their ESG impacts, creating economic, environmental, and social benefit for society. However, these frameworks are not necessarily easily applied by farmers or agricultural producers. In principle, the lack of a simpler and specific framework focused on assisting farmers to continuously improve sustainability on-farm could be a limiting factor in them adopting ESG approaches and standards. With the aim of raising awareness and supporting Australian producers to self-assess and report ESG impacts on farm, and thus contributing to enhanced sustainability performance, we developed an ESG on-farm framework. We also developed a preliminary trial to investigate a) how readily the ESG on-farm framework can be applied by sugarcane farmers; and b) whether the framework can support sugarcane producers to measure sustainability-related risks and opportunities (sustainability baseline) and develop an ESG strategy. The ESG on-farm framework comprises five steps based on a blended format informed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework and other current and relevant ESG standards. The ESG on-farm framework is a self-assessment of ESG readiness designed to be practical and to enable farmers to start their ESG analysis. Preliminary results suggest that the ESG on-farm framework could streamline the process for sugarcane farmers to develop materiality assessments, establish sustainability baselines, and inform ESG strategy.
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ASSCT 2024: 45th Annual Conference of the Australian Society of Sugar Cane Technologists
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45
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7
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Townsville, QLD, Australia
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Australian Society of Sugar Cane Technologists
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Publisher Location
Mackay, QLD, Australia
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