20th June 2020
Bonsucro is a month into the public consultation on the proposed changes to its Production Standard. Since 18 May, the team has held 15 webinars in English, Spanish and Portuguese that look at different themes in the Standard that may be changed. These include a broad overview, the structure of the Standard and social indicators.
A total of 800 people from 35 different countries have attended the webinars. People attended from countries where Bonsucro has a big presence such as Brazil, Guatemala and Australia, but there was also attendance from Norway, Belgium and Malaysia. Recordings of past webinars are available on the public consultation page of the website.
Nahuel Tuñon, Bonsucro’s Standards Manager said, “It’s really encouraging to see such diverse engagement in our webinars on the Standard Revision. The Standard Revision Working Group has been working for months to develop the suggested changes so it’s great to see people all over the world taking such an interest in sustainability. I’m looking forward to seeing what the second half brings.”
The webinars in phase three of the consultation that addressed changes to the Production Standard’s social indicators had the highest participation. The working group have proposed adding indicators on living wage and abuse/harassment.
For a living wage indicator, the draft Standard is proposing an approach that allows operators to establish the benchmark individually and pay wages accordingly. This places the onus on the operator and therefore it is critical to consider resource intensiveness. Bonsucro has also emphasised the need for a globally applicable methodology that is relatively simple to adopt to ensure consistency in calculations, and ease of auditing.
NewForesight produced a report for Bonsucro that reviews decent and living wage benchmark methodologies. This report influenced the proposed indicator in the Production Standard. The report is available to download here.
The public consultation continues until 31 July. You can find a draft of the revised standard and a summary of changes on the public consultation page here. The consultation questionnaire is also available in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Details of the upcoming webinars are below – Bonsucro invites you to join us and ask your questions.
Upcoming webinars
Phase 4: Will look at health and safety indicators and focus on changes that relate to health and safety risk assessments, working hours, housing for workers and sanitation.
Sign up
English, Monday 22 June 2PM BST register here.
English, Tuesday 23 June 8AM BST register here.
Español, miercoles 24 de junio 3PM BST resgistrate aqui.
Español, miercoles 24 de junio 6PM BST resgistrate aqui.
Português, quinta-feira 25 de junho 11AM BRT (Horário de Brasília) registre-se aqui.
Phase 5: Will examine the agro-technical/environmental indicators and will particularly focus on changes to protecting sensitive ecosystems and new requirements around environmental management plans.
Sign up
English, Monday 13 July 2PM BST register here.
English, Tuesday 14 July 8AM BST register here.
Español, miercoles 15 de julio 3PM BST resgistrate aqui.
Español, miercoles 15 de julio 6PM BST resgistrate aqui.
Português, quinta-feira, 16 de julho, 11AM BRT (Horário de Brasília) registre-se aqui.
In addition, a webinar that outlines a summary of the changes proposed to the Production Standard will be held in French on 1 July.
Français, Mercredi 1 Julliet, 14:30 CEST, inscription ici.
If you have any questions about the Standard revision or the public consultation, please contact Nahuel Tuñón, Standards Manager.
