Evaluation of the Bonsucro calculator as a sustainability performance benchmarking tool in the sugarcane sector

N Viart, R Seixas and S Slavinski

Definitions

Definition

• Sustainability performance measurement

– A system of indicators that provides information needed to help controlling, planning, and performance of the economic, environmental, and social activities undertaken by a corporation

• Assumption

– Benchmarking against similar peers can be a powerful tool for driving performance improvement

– Benchmarking is a way to achieve Bonsucro’s mission to ensure that responsible sugarcane production creates lasting value for the people, communities, businesses, economies and eco-systems in all cane-growing origins

Definition

A benchmarking process has four steps (from Moriarty, 2011)

1. Collection of performance/context data

2. Identification of best performers

3. Comparison of divergent performance

4. Recommendation for improvement

The main difference with straight forward comparison is the intent to

learn by facilitating transfer of knowledge from best-in-class to less

performing operators with a set of recommendations for improvement

Bonsucro calculator evaluates performance against Bonsucro Production Standard

53 Indicators

18 Criteria

5 Principles

• 1st published in 2011, current version: 4.1.1• Development followed ISEAL code of practice (scientific

and multi-stakeholder approach)

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Water management• Efficiency of water use

Conservation

• Biodiversity loss & High

Conservation Value (HCV) Areas

Environmental Impact

Agrochemicals

• Total amount and Banned

agrochemicals

Impacts management

• Greenfield expansion

The Standard’s principles and indicators address the three pillars of sustainability

Sustainability criteria

Legal ComplianceLand rights

Labour Rights

• ILO conventions

Salary and contracts

• Minimum wage• Existence of contract

Health & Safety

• Drinking water

• Safety assessments

• First aid & emergency provisionVocational training

Efficiencies & Profitability• Management tool for improved

performance

• Improved technical knowledge

• Investment in R&D

• Use of Bonsucro Calculator

• Recovery of sugar

• Industrial efficiency

Environmental Social Economic

Metric indicators

Input Data Methodology Output

Consistent methodology for the global application of the standard.

• Sustainability performance defined using indicators

– 73% of indicators with Bonsucro standard are metric-based

– For example: investment in R&D as % of total sales

• To evaluate performance against the standard, 245 input data are

collected and 50 output calculated

BONSUCRO SUSTAINABILITY STANDARDS

METRICS CALCULATOR

Data Input SheetBonsucro indicators are calculated on different pages for principles 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, and

separated between grower and miller requirements. A separate page for transport of cane is

included, since it may be either a grower or a miller responsibility.

Data entered is for one year. Data can only be entered by fi l l ing in the yellow fields here, and the

data is transferred to the yellow fields on the following spreadsheets.

Company General Data Input Verifier Personnal notes DescriptionTotal

production

Certifiable

production

only

Name of the Company

Start date of assessment Format: mm/yy

End date of assessment Format: mm/yy

Currency usedYou can choose the currency of your country; a

conversion to US $ is done later in the spreadsheets* *

Currency exchange rate (1$ = ?) 0 www.xe.com * *

Sugarcane production tonnesThis should be the total amount of cane harvest from

the farms within the unit of certification *

Area planted to cane and seed (unit of certification) ha

This is area to be certified. It should not include roads,

fire breaks etc. Includes harvested and non harvested

area.

*

Total supplying area to the mill ha

The is the total area supplying cane to the mill (inside

and outside the unit of certification, own land, rented,

independent farms) - for statistical use only

*

Sugarcane processed tonnes This should be the total amount of cane processed at the mill *Sugar production tonnes This should be the total amount of sugar produced at the mill *Ethanol production m3 Total volume of alcohol product (enter 0 if no ethanol produced)*

Bonsucro Calculator Input Data

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Bonsucro Calculator Output Data

MILLING Company Results 1.1.1 Relevant national laws and international conventions complied with 0.00 NOT COMPLIANT Yes

Company Results 1.2.1

The right to use the land can be demonstrated and is not

legitimately contested by local communities with demonstrable

rights.

0.00 NOT COMPLIANT Yes

Company Results 1.2.2 Land that is legitimately contested by other users 0.00 ha COMPLIANT 0

Company Results 1.2.3 Water that is legitimately contested by other users 0.00 m3 COMPLIANT 0

Company Results 2.1.1 Minimum age of workers (non-hazardous/hazardous) 0/0 NOT COMPLIANT

15 for non hazardous

work; 18 for hazardous

work

Company Results 2.1.2 Absence of forced or compulsory labour 0.00 NOT COMPLIANT Yes

Company Results 2.1.3 Absence of discrimination 0.00 NOT COMPLIANT Yes

Company Results 2.1.4Respect the right of all personnel to form and join trade unions

and/or to bargain collectively 0.00 NOT COMPLIANT Yes

Company Results 2.2.1 Lost time accident frequency #DIV/0! <15

Company Results 2.2.2Assessment of the main health and safety risks and measures

implemented for mitigation of risk 0.00 NOT COMPLIANT Yes

Company Results 2.2.3 Appropriate personal protective equipment 0.00 NOT COMPLIANT 0

Company Results 2.2.4 Training for health and safety. 0.00 NOT COMPLIANT >90

Old

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New

Updates

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Input Data

Output Summary

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Area planted versus Production

• When you submit the calculator, it will show where you are compared to other producers

• This graph includes all mills.

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Visualisation tool

All data are collected within a central database and transferred to Qlik Sense Desktop for visualisation

Results

Results

• Each individual data point is anonymised

• For each selection criteria (e.g. operator name, country, period of

evaluation), the arithmetic mean of the studied input and/or output

is calculated

• Country of assessments

– Brazil (51 mills), Australia (6 mills), India (2 mills), Guatemala (1 mill), Honduras (1 mill)

• Years of production

– 2011 to 2014

• The study was based on 173 data sets from 61 certified mills

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Results

• Study of the potential of the Bonsucro calculator as

a benchmarking tool through 3 examples

– Economic sustainability

– Environmental sustainability

– Social sustainability

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Economic sustainability

• Input data inform operators of

their performance compared to

pool of certified mills

• Can identify best performer

within certain category defined

for example by % of burnt cane

• Opportunity to evaluate impact of

diverging practices and mitigate

negative impacts

17Percentage of Raw Juice purity and percentage of cane burnt per Bonsucro certified mills

Environmental sustainability

• GHG emissions calculated as output using series of input and a set LCA

• Allows operators to compared their individual performance with certified operations and seek advice on improving their results

• Diverging performance was identified by focussing on LUC

– Drive Bonsucro recommendations for the sector w.r.t conversion management and mill adaption strategy

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GHG emissions excluding mills reporting LUC

GHG emissions including mills reporting LUC

Social sustainability

• Identification of best

performer – M13

• Inform pool of mills of number

of accidents in similar context

(lengthen of season)

• Incentivise knowledge capture

and transfer (E.g. H&S) from

best performer

• Evaluation of possible

correlation over 200 day mark

– Need further statistical analyses 19

Number of accidents and length of crushing seasons in Bonsucro certified mills

Discussion

From Moriarty, 2011

1. Collection of performance/context data – Bonsucro calculator fulfils this step

2. Identification of best performers - Bonsucro calculator fulfils this step

3. Comparison of divergent performance – Partially fulfilled through correlations

Some divergent performance might not be explained by the input data currently collected.

It limits the potential of the tool and would require other studies to be carried out and/or

other sources of information to increase contextualisation.

4. Recommendation for improvement – currently not fulfilled

Must be supported by a systematic identification of best performers, collection of case

studies and give operators access to a database of practices

Conclusion 1/2

• Enables objective and comparable evaluation of sustainability

performance of and between sugarcane operators.

– Consistent data collection and output evaluation across all participating operators

– Offers a consistent way to compare social, environmental and economic sustainability performance of operators in the sugarcane sector

• By operating correlation, the tool could accelerate pace of

identification of possible influencing factors beyond demonstrated

causal links

• Under supporting conditions, the tool could accelerate pace of

identification and spread of best performing practices

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Conclusion 2/2

• Data could allow prediction of impact of modification in

environment of production.

– This can increase success of change strategies by encouraging design and implementation of mitigation actions (especially when observations show potential path towards negative impact)

• Needs to be supported by further development to allow better

analyses of divergent performances and knowledge sharing

– Interconnection with other data sources and databases

– Statistical analyses to refine correlation conclusions

– Development of a new knowledge sharing capacity

• Has the potential to offer to sugarcane operators and to the sector

at large a strategic tool to drive and measure medium and long term

sustainability strategies 22

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Thank you!

Rafael SeixasBusiness Effectiveness Managerrafael@bonsucro.com