From Grain Grower magazine #83 | December 2023
Grain grower representatives are in the process of refreshing the Grains Sustainability Framework (GSF) to ensure it is on-farm focused and delivers genuine outcomes for growers.
Launched in 2019, the GSF was led by GrainGrowers in collaboration with a wide range of industry stakeholders. The GSF is designed to strengthen our sustainability credentials and elevate marketing potential.
The GSF aims to do this by defining sustainable grain production in the Australian context and using defensible data to monitor, measure and report industry performance against key sustainability issues. Over time, the performance trends will allow us to showcase strengths, highlight progress, and identify areas requiring investment for practice improvement.
Why do growers need the GSF?
The past five years have seen a marked increase in environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting by public companies to evaluate and mitigate financial risk for the organisation and its investors. This evolving trend combined with moves by the Australian government to mandate standardised reporting has implications across the grain value chain.
The GSF will meet this evolving need for reporting. By providing
transparent and credible evidence of industry performance and improvement, the GSF will help to protect and grow access to investment, finance, customers, and markets. It is important to know that the GSF will not establish or endorse measurement systems at farm level, provide an accreditation or certification system, endorse prescriptive on-farm practices, or create additional work for individual businesses.
So, what's new?
The revised governance embraces a strong collaborative model, featuring shared ownership of the GSF between GrainGrowers and Grain Producers Australia and includes an independent Chair. A representative from the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) will also serve as an observer, offering information and advice where necessary to facilitate decision making.
Strategic stakeholder engagement will be a key feature of the GSF, capturing stakeholder perspectives through review, discussion evaluation and feedback on relevant topics. The development of an industry forum comprising internal industry stakeholders and a consultative committee for external stakeholders will feed into this process.
To ensure the GSF is sharply focused, efforts are underway to update the materiality study and identify the material themes underpinning industry sustainability. In 2019, the initial study identified 10 material themes. This updated study will ensure the GSF is responsive to current and emerging issues, as well as meeting stakeholder expectations.
Additional details will be provided in the coming weeks and months as appointments are made and positions are filled. The newly revised and updated approach marks an exciting development, signalling a revitalised perspective on sustainability for the Australian grains industry.
