29th March 2022

We are pleased to announce that Cocal Comércio Indústria Canaã Açúcar e Álcool has achieved the Bonsucro Production Standard Certification for its plant in Narandiba, São Paulo, Brazil. The plant is part of the Cocal Group – an agro-industrial company that produces several products from sugarcane and its derivatives, including sugarcane, ethanol, electricity and yeast. Between its two plants, Narandiba and Paraguaçu, the group employs 5,200 workers.

For the plant, Bonsucro Certification provided an opportunity to be internationally recognised for its sustainability efforts: “We decided to aim for the Bonsucro Certification to prove to the market that we are aware of the sustainability of our production processes. The Bonsucro seal allows us to be recognised worldwide as a company that adopts good, productive and socially engaged practices.” – Paulo Zanetti, chief executive of Cocal.

However, in addition to the “market and customer recognition” that Bonsucro Certification brings, Mr. Zanetti also commented on how the plant gained “experience in implementation” and improved its “people and socio-environmental management practices” through the adoption of Bonsucro protocols. He explained how this “enables learning and behavioural change for the better, which, in the medium and long term, makes our organisational culture more developed.”

For example, the Cocal Group has implemented several changes in its operations and processes, which has led to greater sustainability in its sugarcane production. These changes included the establishment of specific environmental, social, and governance systems; controls to monitor agricultural operations, and internal protocols to improve management processes.

Next steps in sustainability

Looking ahead, the Cocal Group plans to work on the continuous improvement of its production processes in order to increase the area under its scope of certification. The company is committed to centring “sustainability as a core theme” in its strategy, which, in turn, will create value for shareholders, employees, business partners and the wider society.