The first-ever Bonsucro Technical Week kicks off in Brazil

24th April 2017

Last month, 59 people, drawn from sugarcane mills, auditors, consultants and civil society organisations gathered in Campinas, Brazil, for the first-ever Bonsucro Technical Week.

The notable mix or participants with different backgrounds helped to enrich the discussion and lessons shared during the event.

The week started with introduction training where participants were able to get an understanding of the Bonsucro Certification System, including the Bonsucro Production Standard and the Bonsucro Calculator. The week continued with the expert/auditor qualification training, which is aimed at Lead Auditors and Technical Managers. The training includes a qualification exam,  and those who pass the exam are featured on the Bonsucro Website as qualified auditors and consultants.

The fourth day was dedicated to learning and was open to all interested stakeholders. In the morning Bonsucro showcased the new IT platform, Bonsucro Connect, which is designed to enhance engagement with the Production and Chain of Custody Standards and to enable users to send, organise, and analyse their performance data more effectively. The mills and auditors in the session were excited about the opportunities that this session brings and are looking forward to using it in their mills. Participants provided extensive feedback that will help Bonsucro to further improve Connect before its official launch later in April.

Finally, the day concluded with a local implementation session, where a local multi-stakeholder group had the chance to discuss key local challenges and opportunities in the implementation of the Bonsucro Standard that could benefit from more locally meaningful guidance and support. The group explored important topics in social, environmental, and economic sustainability in Brazil, where value could be created by a local approach and by ‘translating’ the global standard into locally applicable recommendations, practices or technologies.

The week ended with a field trip to the Biosev mill, Leme, where the participants had the opportunity to hear about Biosev’s work plan to achieve Bonsucro certification and the tools they have implemented, as well as seeing the practices implemented at mill and farm level.

To find out more about Bonsucro’s upcoming events, including Technical Weeks, visit the Events page