March 2014
WELCOME TO THE MARCH 2014 EDITION OF THE SUSTAINABLE SOURCE Perpetua George, Sustainable Sourcing Manager, Traceability Originally from Sabah, Malaysia, I am a trained botanist and anthropologist with experience working in the implementation of sustainable certification particularly in palm oil and forestry/timber. This includes at both upstream and downstream levels. My work in Unilever within the Sustainable Sourcing team is to enable full traceability of the products we buy, and eventually to ensure that these come from sustainable sources in line with the USLP targets. Specific expertise includes palm oil.
Dear readers, I am pleased to tell you that we are widening the scope of our magazine and will now also be informing you about the sustainable sourcing progress of our tropical materials. Which means in this edition of the magazine, you will read about some recent news on sustainable palm oil – we have a new commitment that 100% of Palm Oil bought will be traceable to known sources by end 2014; vanilla – we have signed a new Public Private Partnership to help improve livelihoods of farmers in Madagascar; and tea – we have also signed a public-private partnership agreement with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) aimed at helping to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers around the world. These are topics that we didn’t used to cover but are important parts of our sustainable sourcing programme. Australia has become the first country to ensure its entire dairy sector is compliant with Unilever’s Sustainable Agriculture Code – this entire sector transformation has taken a lot of work and we are really proud of the progress. Additionally, you can read about a smallholder farmer assessment pilot where we have begun to look at how we measure whether farmers lives have improved as a result of our work. Then we have news about how Unilever and other global agri-food businesses are using the launch of a new carbon management web app to highlight the need for greater collaboration on agricultural sustainability.
My hope for 2014 is that more Unilever brands can step up their commitments to sustainability and the USLP. We are doing so much to help to change the agricultural industry and to make it more sustainable – but too few of these ingredients make it to consumer view because our brands do not build in enough of sustainability into the actual product. In the next edition, we will have the results from our Unilever Sustainable Living Plan progress update, so we look forward to sharing this with you. Happy reading and if you have any thoughts or comments, please send them to unilever@muddyboots.com. Perpetua George
CONTENTS 3. 4. 5. 7. 9. 10. 11. 13. 14. 15. 17.
SUSTAINABLE SOURCING - KEY FACTS UPDATE PROGRESS ON PALM OIL - 100% TRACEABLE BY 2014 MUDDY BOOTS UPDATE - NEW IPAD APP YOUR CONTROL UNION IFAD - GLOBAL PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT MEET A SUPPLIER - DAIRY AUSTRALIA MEET A SUPPLIER - SYMRISE BRAND SPOTLIGHT - KNORR COOL FARM TOOL - CLIMATE SMART ARGICULTURE SUSTAINABILITY INDICATOR - LIVELIHOOD IMPACT FOR SMALLHOLDERS SPECIAL FEATURE - NEW VERSION OF SAC IN 2015
SUSTAINABLE SOURCING KEY FACTS UPDATE SAC STATISTICS Total assessments submitted in 2013 were 30% higher than in 2012 There was an average of 20 assessments submitted per supplier during 2013 2014 has started positively – So far in Q1 submissions are higher than the same time last year
END OF YEAR SPIKE IN SUBMISSIONS The end of year rush to submit assessments continued in 2013: 55% of the submissions in 2013 were made during quarter 4 37% of the submissions in 2013 were made during December Quarter 3 continues to be the quietest time for assessment submission
We hope that the next deadline in June 2014 will be different. Now that you are familiar with the system and the requirements assessments should be planned in sufficient time to avoid a deadline rush. COMING SOON to help with this: NEW alerts in Quickfire to flag approaching deadlines A diploma expiry graph on your Quickfire Homepage
THANK YOU FOR YOUR EFFORTS IN HELPING US TO ACHIEVE OUR SUSTAINABILITY TARGETS. PLEASE KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
PROGRESS ON PALM OIL TRACEABLE TO KNOWN SOURCES BY END OF 2014 Unilever has announced a significant move in its journey to accelerate market transformation towards sustainable palm oil, announcing that by the end of 2014, all of the palm oil Unilever buys globally will be traceable to known sources.
Dhaval Buch (Chief Procurement Officer as of January 2014), said “Unilever firmly believes that it is only through constructive dialogue and close cooperation that we can lead the transformation of the industry. We will continue to engage with our suppliers, NGOs, governments, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, end users and other industry stakeholders to develop collaborative solutions to halt deforestation, protect peat land, and to drive positive economic and social impact for people and local communities.” Richard Holland, Director of WWF’s Market Transformation Initiative said: “Unilever’s 2014 commitment marks a very promising step on the continuing journey towards real market transformation to sustainable palm oil. Unilever’s role and actions have been instrumental on this journey so far. They helped us establish the RSPO in 2004 and have been closely involved in its development into a credible institution and standard. But, as importantly, Unilever has also matched its commitment with action on buying RSPO certified sustainable palm oil. That is why we ranked Unilever amongst the top scorers in the industry in our Palm Oil Scorecard. But the journey is not over. We will continue to work with Unilever and others through the RSPO to encourage further certification by growers and buying of certified palm oil by manufacturers and retailers. WWF also encourages leading companies in the sector to set the industry benchmarks on important issues like traceability, protection of peat lands, significant GHG reductions and no deforestation. We urge other companies along the palm oil value chain to follow the lead shown by Unilever”.
Unilever is one of the world’s major buyers of palm oil for use in products such as margarine, ice cream, soap and shampoo. It purchases around 1.5 million tonnes of Palm Oil and its derivatives annually, which represents about 3% of the world’s total production. Unilever is committed to driving market transformation towards a more sustainable palm oil sector. The company was a founder member of the RSPO and co-chair the Consumer Goods Forum Steering Group on Sustainability and has led the process which resulted in the creation of the Tropical Forest Alliance, a multi-stakeholder collaboration involving governments with the goal of eliminating deforestation.
OTHER PALM OIL NEWS: In November 2013: Unilever launched its Sustainable Palm Oil Sourcing Policy which focuses on three key principles: Halt deforestation, Protect peat land and Drive positive economic and social impact for people and communities. In December 2013: Unilever signed an MoU with supplier, Wilmar International to work together to drive sustainable market transformation for palm oil.
MUDDY BOOTS SOFTWARE LATEST UPDATES We saw a busy end to 2013 with 3 software releases in the final quarter and a spike in assessment submissions. One of the key changes was the new validation rules requiring Cool Farm Tool input spreadsheets and Biodiversity Action Plans to be uploaded before assessment set closure. We would like to thank you all for actively adopting this new requirement at such a busy time of year.
Anna Powell, your Muddy Boots Account Manager.
COMPLETE YOUR ASSESSMENTS ONLINE In September 2013 the NEW online assessment completion screens were launched in Quickfire. You have embraced this new way of completing assessments, we hope that the numbers below continue to increase over the coming months: In December 20% of assessments submitted used the new online platform In quarter 4 2013 14% of assessments submitted used the new online platform
ASSESSMENTS APP WE’VE LAUNCHED A NEW IPAD APP! The Assessments App is now available for Apple iPads, allowing you to collect assessment data offline. Muddy Boots has restructured their secure data capture technology for a touch-screen portable interface. It’s simple to use, removes
duplication of data entry and means that you no longer need to take your computer with you when completing assessments offline. See the Muddy Boots website for more detail on how to get hold of this exciting new App, we hope that it receives the same positive adoption as online assessments: http://en.muddyboots.com/audit-management
“The Assessments App from Muddy Boots provides another simple and flexible way for Unilever suppliers to collect data. Using the App, assessments can now be completed when travelling or during farm visits, making data collection and submission a more efficient and streamlined process. This means that Unilever can view supplier sustainability achievements without delay! Partnerships with our suppliers are key to us delivering the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan and this is another step in the right direction.” David Pendlington, Procurement Operations Director, Unilever
OTHER RECENT SOFTWARE UPDATES: NEW SAC dynamic filtering Removes questions based on the response to a previous question NEW validation rules Upload Cool Farm Tool input spreadsheet with each farmer assessment Upload Biodiversity Action Plan if question 5.3.3.2 is answered ‘Yes’ Updates to Unilever SAC 34 SAC questions removed Raw materials added and removed Updates to assessment sets Warning for duplicate assessment sets Reminder to mark set as complete Indicate supply chain type when creating sets Certificate benchmark changes New, updated and removed certificate benchmarks NEW acceptable ranges of values allowed on certain questions Online warnings / failures PAF submission warnings / failures SAC Report updates Changes to Sustainably Sourced Report NEW KPI Metric Reports NEW Supply Chain Export Report Assessment Submission Report updated to show direct supplier
WEBINARS Software updates will continue throughout 2014. Webinars summarising changes and to recap on assessment process take place after all releases with the next scheduled on March 20 2014, you will receive an email with details on how to sign up. If you are unable to join look out for the recordings circulated to suppliers afterwards and stored in the help area of Quickfire. In the next issue we will be focusing on the KPI Metric Reports to help you to get the most out of the SAC data you have worked so hard to collect.
CONTACT US For further detail on anything mentioned in this section and other technical questions related to the software and training, please contact support@muddyboots.com.
YOUR CONTROL UNION SUPPORT ON IMPLEMENTATION
Since the start of the implementation of the standard on supplier and farm level, the number of sustainable products which are supplied to Unilever is growing rapidly. More and more suppliers, farmers, crops and countries are involved in the transition to produce and supply sustainably. Our involvement to the sustainable ambitions of Unilever and their suppliers, is to support the implementation of the sustainable standard worldwide. Our central role in this process requires close collaboration with Unilever, the supplier and their farmers. Thanks to our global team we are able to serve locally and are able to find solutions together with you as our supplier, to implement the standard properly with understanding and respect to the local circumstances, possibilities and challenges.
COMPLIANCE TO THE STANDARD
LOCAL SUPPORT
The road to produce in compliance with a sustainability standard is different per crop, country and farmer. The aim is to supply sustainable products within the agreed time frame, but a clear understanding of the compliance criteria is an important first step on the journey.
Implementation support is, as in previous years, provided by our local consultants on behalf of Unilever. Our group of agricultural experts is growing progressively together with the demand for local support at farm level in a certain country or new countries. Each year more supplier and farmer visits have been offered to consult on the interpretation and implementation of the standard. This is not limited to visits and verbal consultancy, but means that we develop with you the Biodiversity Action Plans, Energy Management Plans and Farmer manuals, as well as support with doing the selfassessments.
Clear understanding and full compliance to both parts of the standard is crucial to be finally approved as sustainably sourced. It’s the supplier who has to be aware of that but you will be clearly guided by Control Union, as part of the consultancy service we provide on behalf of Unilever. A clear overview of your supply chain is important to make the right decisions and guidance regarding the entire process, Our consultants are connected to you as individual sequence and actions. suppliers, but also to the related Unilever Procurement Manager. This structure makes it possible to work in close cooperation with all involved parties.
Any question relating to the implementation of the SAC can be sent to unileversac@controlunion.com. We will make sure that your questions will be answered, as an additional support to the service which is offered by our consultants.
TRAINING As part of the consultancy service we provide to you as a supplier, we are organising several training workshops worldwide. These will be focussed on practical interpretation and implementation of the standard. We would like to invite you to participate in any of the workshops which will be organised regularly.
BACKGROUND OF CONTROL UNION AND ITS SERVICES Control Union is a family owned, independent, internationally operating body that carries out different service across the entire supply chain and offers you a global one-stop-shop for a wide range of (certification) programs. We gained years of experience and expertise in; forestry, agriculture, food safety, sustainability and quality. Our approach is global presence and local service, which means that we are organised centrally by offering the service by local experts who are employed by Control Union.
LOCATION OF CONSULTANTS Argentine
Netherlands
Australia
Peru
Belgium
Philippines
Brazil
Poland
China
Russia
Egypt
Serbia
France
South Africa
Germany
Spain
Greece
Sri-Lanka
Hungary
Switzerland
India
Thailand
Indonesia
Turkey
Israel
United Kingdom
Italy
USA
Morocco
Vietnam
UNILEVER USQS REQUIREMENTS Control Union is listed as preferred certification body for conducting Food safety and Social audits on their supplier worldwide. Its means that we can be contracted by you to offer our audit and certification service on your sites.
Gerard Blijleven and Frank van der Velden Program Managers Control Union
PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE SOURCING IFAD The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and leading global consumer goods company Unilever have signed a public-private partnership agreement aimed at helping to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers around the world.
The 5 year global agreement – the first of its kind by IFAD with the private sector – was signed by IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze and Unilever CEO Paul Polman to help improve food security through: raising agricultural productivity; linking farmers to markets; reducing risk and vulnerability; improving non-farm rural employment; and making agriculture more sustainable. Scoping exercises have already begun looking at ways to leverage IFAD’s knowledge and expertise in working with small-scale farmers and rural enterprises with Unilever’s ability to integrate farmers into markets and its expertise in sustainable agriculture. These have included a joint field mission to review an IFAD-supported project in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, Western India in January 2014, focused on spices and onions. About 1.2 billion people live in poverty, 76% of whom live in rural areas; and 200 million are unemployed*. This will be exacerbated as the growing population demands more food. The world will need to feed nine billion people by 2050. A 70% increase in global agricultural production will be essential to feed them, as we’ll need to produce as much food between now and 2050 as we have done in the last 10,000 years. Unless higher small and large crop yields can be reached, many people will remain hungry and trapped in poverty. Kanayo Nwanze said, “It is not enough to focus narrowly on boosting agricultural productivity. Instead, a broader approach that also supports the establishment of viable linkages between rural producers and markets is essential. “IFAD recognises that the right types of investments in agriculture are essential to food security for a growing population. That is why partnerships like the one we have signed today with Unilever are so critical”. Investment in agriculture, according to the World Bank is two to four times more effective in raising incomes among the very poor than growth in other sectors.
Paul Polman said, “Now, more than ever, the world needs to increase investment in agriculture and this investment must come from both the public and private sectors to effect truly scalable transformational change.” “Both smallholder and large -scale agriculture are necessary to boost productivity and produce enough food to feed the world’s poor. In order to move from subsistence to commercial farming, 1.5 billion people who rely on small farms need access to knowledge, assets, credit, markets, and risk management that can come from larger-scale business enterprises.” Both IFAD and Unilever have similar geographic footprints and countries – like China, India and Indonesia - that are key to development and growth. Both organisations are guided by similar principles and shared aims and commitments to improving livelihoods of smallholder farmers and eradicating poverty. Through a programme of loans and grants supporting over 256 projects and programmes in 97 countries, IFAD is helping 78.7 million rural people receive services to move out of poverty. Women in particular are targeted, accounting for about 50% of participants in projects in 2013. In November 2010, Unilever set out its Sustainable Living Plan, committing to a ten year journey towards sustainable growth – with the aim of helping more than a billion people take action to improve their health and well-being, sourcing all its agricultural raw materials sustainably by 2020, and decoupling its growth from its environmental impact. Supporting these three big goals are seven pillars including three focusing on enhancing livelihoods, sustainable sourcing and nutrition. Since the end of 2010, Unilever has increased the number of smallholders trained in sustainable practices to around 450,000. * ILO 2013 Global Employment Trends Report
MEET A SUPPLIER DAIRY AUSTRALIA Unilever has given Australian dairy production accreditation as meeting its exacting Sustainable Agriculture Code (SAC). As a result, all Australian-produced milk is now deemed by Unilever to contribute to the company’s sustainable sourcing goal.
“Dairy Australia is absolutely delighted that ours is the first dairy industry in the world to be recognised as meeting Unilever’s sustainability standards, and all credit to the company for taking an industry-wide approach,” said Ian Halliday, Managing Director of Dairy Australia. After recommendations from Australian dairy companies including Murray Goulburn and Fonterra, Unilever agreed to work with Dairy Australia to benchmark the industry’s production standards to see if they matched Unilever’s worldwide SAC requirements. ’We took an industry-level approach to avoid duplicative efforts across dairy companies’ milk suppliers and, once the results were in, provide broader assurances about all Australian milk production,” said Mr Halliday. Unilever has ambitious sustainability targets for its business and has set a target of 100% sustainably sourced materials by 2020. By taking a long-term view, Unilever must accelerate through partnerships and the work with Dairy Australia is an example of the pioneering leadership needed to achieve its goal. “We have worked hard with Dairy Australia over the course of the past year to benchmark the Australian dairy industry’s milk production standards against our exacting SAC standards,” said Dirk Jan deWith, Unilever Procurement Vice-President of Sustainability & Ingredients. The company’s benchmarking revealed Australia’s dairy industry is 100% compliant with the mandatory requirements of the Sustainable Agriculture Code. Three specific gaps, in soils, biodiversity and waste were identified, and to remedy this Dairy Australia, together with Murray Goulburn, Fonterra and
several other dairy companies, have agreed to implement a project involving nearly 100 farms across the country’s eight dairy regions. “The intent is to show continuous improvement in the gap areas towards improving sustainable dairy farming,” said Mr Halliday. “The Australian dairy industry is committed to the development and implementation of ongoing targets, measures and action plans and our industry-wide adoption of the Australia Dairy Industry Sustainability Framework, is an important part of that commitment”, he added. The industry’s first Sustainability Progress Report is also being released today and work on the measures identified and action plans needed to reach targets is ongoing. A further Progress Report will be produced at the end of 2014. “Our ultimate goal is to ensure Australian dairy’s sustainability standards evolve and improve to enable us to enhance livelihoods, improve wellbeing, reduce our environmental impact and stay competitive with any other dairy industry in the world,” said Mr Halliday.
MEET A SUPPLIER SYMRISE Unilever, its supplier Symrise and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH have announced a partnership to improve the livelihoods of 4,000 vanilla farmers in the Sava region, Madagascar. This unique development partnership includes a comprehensive three-year programme that will impact 32 communities and involve 44 schools and colleges, giving it the potential to improve 24,000 lives in one of the world’s poorest nations. The programme is partly financed within the framework of the develoPPP.de programme of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
Madagascar produces 79% of the world’s natural vanilla supply. Unilever uses vanilla as an ingredient in its leading ice cream brands, such as Magnum, Breyers and Carte D’Or. The partnership aims to secure this vanilla supply for Unilever in the future and to support the farming communities with improved access to secondary education and training in agricultural best practices. The programme will operate through farmer field schools to both increase vanilla productivity and also encourage crop diversification. As a result, farmers can earn more money from vanilla, improve their food self-sufficiency and also sell other crops during lean periods. Consequently it will enhance the farmers’ economic independence. The integrated education programme will also support
Click here to watch a video about this fantastic partnership: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=SHOE5dVTQW4&feature=c4-ov erview&list=UUMVcaTH8mk0POzGBvjW a7tg
environmental education in primary schools through training teachers and providing teaching kits; and aims to establish a learning platform of rural agricultural colleges for vocational training of adolescents. Throughout the project equal opportunities will be provided to women and girl students since they represent about 50% of the communities and are actively involved in farm management: between 20 and 30% of the farmer households are headed up by women.
PARTNERSHIPS CRUCIAL TO DRIVE POSITIVE CHANGE Symrise and Unilever have been working with smallholder farmers in the Sava region for a number of years already, and this partnership will accelerate plans on the ground. GIZ, in this programme working on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), is a German federal enterprise in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development which operates in more than 130 countries worldwide and draws on a wealth of regional and technical expertise. It will play a crucial role in defining how the programme is developed and monitored. A previous partnership between Symrise and GIZ from 2010 to 2012 in the Diana-Region of northern Madagascar has shown promising results: 500 farmers were trained on sustainable agricultural practices, fairtrade standards and principles of certification and marketing. They have increased their productivity and created greater income opportunities by expanding their production to include other crops. The economic situation of the farmers has greatly improved. On average, the 500 vanilla producers have benefited from a 24% increase of their incomes.
Dhaval Buch, Chief Procurement Officer Unilever, said: “In our Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, we have set clear and ambitious targets for engaging with smallholder farmers, and this is a wonderful example of how we can help them improve their agricultural practices, to enable them to become more competitive. The fact that this programme has a focus on agricultural entrepreneurs and prioritises women for training makes it even more valuable. For us, this is a key example of how a partnership can work to increase the positive social impact in our supply chain.” Symrise has been described as ‘passionate pioneers’ in the sustainable sourcing of vanilla. As the only fully integrated flavour manufacturer present in Madagascar, Symrise employees who live and work there are the friends and neighbours of the smallholder farmers. Dr. Heinz-Jürgen Bertram, CEO of Symrise AG explained: “We are very excited about the comprehensive development programme we have now set up together with our partners Unilever and GIZ. Sharing Values is at the heart of our corporate strategy. This renewed commitment is an opportunity to create value for all.”
BRAND SPOTLIGHT KNORR
Could you be the next beneficiary of the Knorr Partnership Fund? Knorr has a partnership fund to support you and your farmers on complex sustainable agriculture projects which you may be unable to tackle alone. This has been hugely successful in the past few years, with 23 additional projects in 2013 and the good news is – there are more funds to share!
Knorr will invest 50% of any agreed project budget, matched by an equivalent investment from you and/ or your grower. This will enable you to try out new ideas and accelerate implementation of sustainable agricultural practices. Each year we will co-invest* 1 million Euros with our suppliers and farmers in knowledge and equipment to accelerate the implementation of sustainable practices. This will not only help you and your farmers learn sustainability practices but will provide you with rich and engaging stories to tell about what you have learnt, so you can share your best practices or make case studies for your website. One example of great progress is with Spanish tomato grower Agraz. As well as cutting water use, Agraz has supported biodiversity by creating an environment in which such birds as white storks and black-shouldered kites can thrive. Agraz’s farm has now been designated a Knorr “Landmark Farm.” This is a win-win situation because Agraz is showcased as one of the best tomato suppliers, and Knorr in turn refernces Agraz as an example of best practices in sustainable farming. Another example is with Steinicke, one of Germany’s leading producers of herbs and dried vegetables. Steinicke farmers provide Unilever with chives, parsley, carrots, celeriac and leeks. As one of the least populated regions in Germany,
the area of Wendland where Steinicke and its farmers are located offers ideal migration routes and habitats for endangered species such as otter, beaver, common crane and the common wolf which has started to appear ,as a result of the fallen border fences versus the East in 1989. The farms include many forest areas which are extensively used for forestry, and farmers are being encouraged to build nesting boxes and bird hides in their fields. What’s more, Steinicke organises local school groups to monitor flower stripes on unproductive areas to research the fauna and flora. Crossing Steinicke’s farm lands are a big-bird habitat, wild forest and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. In order to protect these, farmers have adapted their cultivation accordingly by mowing meadows only once a year, not cropping on the wetlands of rivers and planting hedges. Steinicke is also supporting a local bat conservation project. These projects enable Knorr to build deeper relationships with its suppliers and can offer suppliers well needed support and an opportunity to differentiate from its peers. For more information on this or to start an informal conversation. Please contact: andrea.granier@unilever.com
COOL FARM TOOL CLIMATE SMART AGRICULTURE
Global agri-food businesses are using the launch of a new carbon management web app to highlight the need for greater collaboration on agricultural sustainabiliy.
Members of The Cool Farm Institute (CFI), including Unilever, PepsiCo, Heineken, Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Yara and Fertilizers Europe have spearheaded the development of an online tool to help farmers assess and improve the environmental and economic performance of their businesses. But the Institute members say that the scale and complexity of the challenge is so great that more cooperation is essential to secure an environmentally responsible, climate resilient and economically sustainable food system of the future. To support this goal the Cool Farm Institute has launched the new calculator and is inviting businesses of all sizes to join their initiative. The tool can be accessed via the Institute’s website: http://www.coolfarmtool.org/ Richard Heathcote, Executive Committee member of the Cool Farm Institute, launched the call for action at the 2014 Farming Futures conference in the United Kingdom – an event exploring the role of agricultural technologies in delivering food supply-chain resilience. Mr Heathcote said: “The Cool Farm Institute has brought together leading academics and major food and drink industry players to develop a user-friendly, on-line version of The Cool Farm Tool. The CFI is now looking forward to seeing many more farm assessments being done all over the world on a range of crop and livestock systems. The Institute also has exciting plans to extend the tool’s capabilities to other key environmental metrics, such as water and biodiversity”. The Cool Farm Tool has been successfully used by farmers of all sizes and types across the world to understand the carbon footprint of their production systems and adapt management to improve their performance, from smallholder cotton and coffee farmers in India and Kenya to egg and potato producers in the Unites States and United Kingdom.
Carmel McQuaid, Head of Sustainable Business, at Marks & Spencer said: “It’s exciting to see the results of what happens when you combine a willingness to collaborate and an enabling technology. I’m hopeful this will transform the business of reducing farm emissions from being a burden on farmers to being a valuable decision support tool”. Jan Kees Vis, Global Director, Sustainable Sourcing Development at Unilever, said: “Reporting greenhouse gas emissions is part of the Metric Reporting requirements of our Sustainable Agriculture Code. Therefore, the Cool Farm Tool is important to us as we head towards achieving our Unilever Sustainable Living Plan targets. It brings practical benefits for farmers, to help reduce carbon emissions on their farms. The aim is that more and more companies in the agricultural sector start using this tool, so that we can see real industry transformation.” Lisa Buckley-Hoyle, Tesco Group Food Technical Director said “We were really excited to trial the tool with a group of our producers through our Tesco Producer Network in 2013. As the first retailer to do this, Tesco was able to suggest improvements to the CFT prior to its launch this year. We are now working with a wider group of producers to support using the tool to track their carbon reductions and resource efficiency”.
SUSTAINABILITY INDICATOR MEASURING THE LIVELIHOOD IMPACT ON UNILEVER’S SMALLHOLDER FARMERS
Unilever has piloted a livelihoods measurement assessment tool to gauge the impact we are having on the hundreds of smallholder farmers we’re committed to helping achieve better livelihoods.
SMALLHOLDER LIVELIHOODS ASSESSMENT With our sustainable sourcing programme well underway, Unilever wants to understand how farmers are benefitting from efforts to improve their agricultural practices and living conditions. Key to understanding this impact is being able to measure any changes. Unilever’s newly piloted tool, The Smallholder Livelihoods Assessment, has been designed with inspiration and guidance from the Sustainable Food Lab (SFL), the Committee on Sustainability Assessment, ISEAL and the Rainforest Alliance. It aims to understand what impact Unilever’s agricultural training and funding is having on the
livelihoods of the smallholder farmers who receive it, so that positive work can be leveraged and areas for improvement can be addressed. This support forms part of Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan, in which Unilever has committed to engage with at least 500,000 smallholder farmers and 75,000 small-scale distributors in our supply network by 2020. Unilever works with suppliers to help smallholder farmers improve their agricultural practices and thus enable them to become more competitive. By doing so, it will improve the quality of their livelihoods. But key to being able to understand what positive effect our relationship is having is being able to measure impact.
MEASURING IMPACT Unilever’s assessment approach comes in the form of a survey, which uses elements from other best practice surveys and metric assessments to ensure credibility, affordability and scalability. The first assessments have been carried out among Kenyan smallholder tea farmers from the Kenyan Tea Development Agency. Surveys have also been carried out with Unilever’s Malagasy vanilla farmers in Madagascar and Indonesian black soybean growers. Unilever’s Global Director for Sustainable Sourcing Development, Jan Kees Vis, says measuring livelihood is a complex process. “Livelihood, like sustainability, covers a wide range of issues, and there are many methodologies for assessing impact. But some are prohibitively expensive and are therefore not suitable for regular use with a large number of often geographically dispersed smallholders. Others are too narrow to sufficiently cover the range of issues where we’re likely to have an impact.”
He says this tool is designed to give Unilever real and tangible data to work with, so teams can make the right assessments and recommendations for the future.
A SCALABLE SOLUTION The assessment data from the pilot tests in Kenya, Madagascar and Indonesia is currently being analysed and, once results are in, they’ll be used to help refine the assessment tool so it can be applied to two further pilot sites in a bid to canvass a wide range of different crop growers and geographies. Once the findings from the second pilot are in, any further necessary improvements will be applied to the tool before it’s rolled out to the more than 500,000 smallholder farmers in Unilever’s supply chain.
SPECIAL FEATURE *NEW* VERSION OF THE UNILEVER SAC IN 2015 We can announce that there will be a *NEW* version of the Unilever Sustainable Agriculture Code (SAC) released in 2015. For Unilever there are two main routes to ensure raw materials count as ‘sustainably sourced’, either by working towards one of the Unilever recognised certification standards or through self-assessment using the Unilever Sustainable Agriculture Code.
THE HISTORY OF THE SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE CODE We established our Sustainable Agriculture Programme almost 15 years ago, in 1998. Between 1999 and 2003 we developed detailed guidelines, called Good Agricultural Practice Guidelines, defining what sustainable agriculture means for our key crops – palm oil, tea, tomatoes, peas, spinach. Working in partnership with an external advisory board and expert agronomists, we based these Guidelines on 11 topics including water, energy, pesticide use, biodiversity, social capital and animal welfare. We have learnt that good farming, wherever it is, has much in common. Through steadily collecting
different sustainable practices from our network of agronomists, farmers, consultants and sustainability advisers, we eventually developed the Sustainable Agriculture Code in 2010.
CHANGING TIMES 2010 now seems like a long time ago in the world of business and sustainability. Sustainability is a more sophisticated topic in the world of farming, as more and more farmers come on board and sustainability is thankfully more common place in businesses. If we consider this, as well as evidence of extreme climates and an advance in technology in the way people collect data – it is definitely time for an updated code!
Most of us now believe that agriculture will be facing more problems in the future – from more uncertain and more extreme climates, from the need for more and higher quality food from limited land resources and with rising input costs. And we also understand that those of us who work in agriculture, or buy agricultural products, need to play our part to ensure agriculture can remain profitable while also improving the position of those who work on farms, communities who live near farms and environmental aspects of how the land is managed. We have had feedback from you, our suppliers and we are learning what has and hasn’t worked for you. We realize not everything was perfect in the first code and we realize this is an evolving landscape. So we are modifying the code to meet these requirements and Quickfire has also made improvements and modifications. Jonathon Porritt, leading environmentalist, said of the code in 2010: “Since 1997, Unilever’s food brands have been developing a Sustainable Agriculture Code for all its suppliers, covering every aspect of production. It’s an extraordinary document, and makes most governments’ guidance on ‘good agricultural practice’ look extremely crude.” Dirk Jan deWith, VP Procurement Ingredients & Sustainability, said: “Thousands of farmers across the world have learnt new sustainable agriculture practices because of the code. This has also improved our capability to capture better and more reliable data. Our aim is to bring this game changing document up to date and we cannot do this alone, we welcome feedback from farmers and suppliers, who really have their ear to the ground and want to help with this ongoing commitment to sustainability.”
Unilever has also moved on, with commitments on halving environmental impacts for water and greenhouse gas emissions across the value chain in the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, on halting deforestation, and with the forthcoming Supplier Policy.
KEY ELEMENTS TO CONSIDER • What new elements need to be added? • What is no longer relevant? • Can we improve our wording? Perhaps we need to be more specific? How can we make the process simpler?
We plan to hold a consultation session with some of our Quickfire users on these questions in the next few months. In the meantime, if you have ideas regarding our new SAC or the software we use to implement it, please send your comments to gail.smith@unilever.com. We need to hear from you, and we need to hear what your farmers think too. Thank you very much.
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Muddy Boots Software Ltd t: +44 (0)1989 780540 www.mu ddyboots.co m Technical Support t: +44 (0)1989 780540 e: support@muddyboots.com Anna Powell Unilever Account Manager t: +44 (0)1989 780540 e:anna.powell@muddyboots.com