Bonsucro Production Standard (v5.1) transition period

27th May 2022

The new Bonsucro Production Standard, V5.1, was published in January after a comprehensive consultation and revision process. To help our members prepare to implement the new Standard, we created seven free to access training modules in English, Spanish and Portuguese. We also held a series of virtual question and answer sessions so that members could questions directly.

Audits conducted from 1 September 2022 will be against the new Standard. However, we recognise that factors such as financial constraints, and the time required to carry out the necessary surveys and mapping exercises on vast supply bases may impact an operator’s ability to implement some of the new indicators. In addition, data required to comply with the new Bonsucro Calculator to demonstrate compliance against the new Standard may not be available, partially due to the reporting period. For these reasons, we have identified a list of indicators for which a transition pathway will be acceptable and published a transition period policy in March 2022.

There are different transition pathways which vary depending on the indicator and the needs we identified:

New data collection for the calculator

In some cases, if the data required is not yet available by the time your first audit against the new Production Standard is due, the data can be prepared for the following audit.

Key date: if your calculator reporting period ends before 17 January 2023

Due diligence beyond the certified area

In some cases, if the indicator requires you to work beyond the area certified, your first audit against the new Production Standard will focus on the progress you have made including having a plan in place to reach compliance within an extended timeframe (by your next audit or within two years).

Key date: if your first audit against the new Standard takes place before 1 September 2023.

New or amended indicator

Implementing some indicators will benefit from a longer timeline as they require a planning phase, contracting support, or training staff on new practices. Your first audit against the new Production Standard will focus on the progress you have made, including having a plan in place to reach compliance within an extended timeframe (by your next audit or within two years).

Key date: if your first audit against the new Standard takes place before 1 September 2023.

Area already certified against the Bonsucro Production Standard V4.2 impacted by new 4.1.4 indicator

In some cases, the area of certified land might not comply with this new indicator. Bonsucro is looking into developing a compensation and remediation protocol to avoid loss of certified areas. For your first audit against the new Production Standard, you will be expected to present a list of certified areas impacted by this indicator, but you will not be expected to remove them from your scope of certification. Understanding which areas are impacted will help Bonsucro develop the compensation and remediation protocol.

Key date: if the area currently certified against the Bonsucro Production Standard V4.2 was certified before 17 January 2022.

Living wage indicator

To capture data on wages, we intend to partner with the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) to use its Salary Matrix – a tool developed for other sustainability initiatives. We are finalising how to ensure the partnership is successful and beneficial to all our stakeholders. We plan to pilot the Salary Matrix with volunteers from our membership. More information on our approach to living wage can be found here.

Key date: when the pilots are complete and the tool is ready to integrate into the calculator, we will inform members.

For full details and conditions, please refer directly to the policy.

When operators use the adapted transition pathway for a core indicator, certification bodies will identify the indicator in question as “partially met” in the calculator. The calculator will still display the status against the indicator as “not compliant”. However, the “partially met” status, will not prevent a positive certification decision.

The policy gives transition pathways for 14 indicators (core and non-core).  If you have any concerns about implementing some indicators in the new Standard, (whether or not these indicators are listed in the transition policy), you should liaise with your certification body to discuss whether this could be addressed with an exemption. All exemptions granted by Bonsucro are through requests from certification bodies, not operators/members.

Download the full transition policy here.