2010 STATE OF SUSTAINABILITY
19.05.2011 - The Sustainable Commodity Initiative (SCI) has published the research paper The State of Sustainability Initiatives Review 2010: Sustainability and Transparency, which gives an overview of the system characteristics and market trends regarding ten of the most mature voluntary sustainability initiatives (VSIs) - including Fairtrade.
Here the most interesting findings of the Review:
Sustainability Trends
- 70% of the initiatives surveyed are member-based organisations;
- non-governmental organisations (NGOs) remain a dominant force at the board level of the ten initiatives;
- developing countries are significantly represented at the board level across a large majority of the initiatives;
- 70% of the initiatives comply with ISO 65 or other independent accreditation systems;
- 70% of the initatives include traceability measures.
Criteria scope and depth
- Environmental criteria remain the most prevalent and robust across all initiatives. Criteria related to energy conservation, GMO prohibitions and greenhouse gas management, however, tend to have less presence or emphasis across initiatives. Strong convergence exists on synthetic inputs criteria, with almost all initiatives either requiring integrated pest management or compliance with a prohibited chemicals list;
- Social criteria revolve largely around International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions, with virtually all initiatives requiring compliance with core ILO conventions as well as most initiatives having strong criteria coverage of health and safety and employment conditions;
- Economic criteria are the least developed across the initiatives, with the majority having few or no economic criteria, mostly revolving around product quality requirements and minimum wages.
Market trends
- Market trends are growing rapidly, at rates far beyond the growth of markets for conventional products;
- Over the past 5 years, sustainable coffee sales have grown by 433%, accounting for 8% of global exports. 75% of all sustainable coffee comes from Latin America;
- Over the past 5 years, sustainable tea production has grown by 5.557%, accounting for 7,7% of global tea exports. Africa is the dominant supplier;
- Over the past 5 years, sustainable cocoa sales have grown by 248%, accounting for 1,2% of global sales at the end of 2008. Latin America and Africa are the predominant suppliers of certified cocoa, accounting for approximately 48% and 51% of total sustainable production, respectively, while 70% of conventional cocoa on the global market is produced in Africa;
- From 2007 to 2009, sustainable banana sales have grown by 63% and accounted for approximately 20% of world exports by 2009. Latin America is the largest supplier of conventional bananas (72%) but accounts for 97% of sustainable banana production.
Sustainability and Transparency
VSIs have played an active role in building the transparency of international supply chains by collecting and verifying information related to production and trading practices at various stages of production. And while VSIs have excelled in providing information about the institutions and supply chains they monitor, they have spent much less attention on providing information regarding their own operations and impact. A number of new conditions are leading to a shift, with a growing number of initiatives reporting on a growing range of indicators.
Download the full document:
Part 1: Foreword and Introduction (22 pages, 524Kb)
Part 2: System indicators (27 pages, 1,07Mb)
Part 3: Market Overview: forest, coffee, tea (45 pages, 4,27Mb)
Part 4: Market Overview: cocoa, banana and agricultural certification costs (30 pages, 2Mb)
Part 5: Transparency & Sustainable Development, Conclusions, References (37 pages, 434Kb)
