Day 1 + 2 - Training on the Bonsucro System

Attendees will gain an in-depth understanding of the Bonsucro Certification System through exercises, group discussions, formal presentations as well as practical sessions on how to effectively implement the Bonsucro Production Standard. The first day will mainly be dedicated to exploring the 5 principles of the Bonsucro Standard and the second day will be mainly focused on more practical activities to enhance the application of the standard.

Principles of the Bonsucro Production Standard covered in the training:

• Principle 1 – Obey the Law
• Principle 2 – Respect Human Rights and Labour Standards
• Principle 3 – Manage input, production and processing efficiencies to enhance sustainability
• Principle 4 – Actively Manage Biodiversity and ecosystem services
• Principle 5: Continuously improve key areas of the business

Practical Guidance sessions

• How to write effective health & safety plans
• How to Implement Bonsucro Standards – Conducting Gap assessments
• Chain of Custody & Credit Trading System
• Benefits of Bonsucro Implementation in numbers – Performance Improvement & Quality Assurance

Day 3 - Field Visit:

Day will be spent conducting a technical field visit to a sugarcane mill and farmland, which have been working on implementing the Bonsucro Production Standard in their operations. These visits are designed to highlight the work they have been carrying out and sharing experiences in adapting to the changes and benefits of the implementation.

Day 4 - Tools and Resources:

This day will cover tools to assist producers and enablers to improve sustainability practices as well as achieve Bonsucro Certification.  The morning will be dedicated to Bonsucro Connect: our new online tool that enables users to demonstrate and monitor sustainability through visualisation of sustainability performance, live benchmarking against peers, and facilitation of data collection and auditing.  The afternoon will be dedicated to exploring the nascent Bonsucro Smallholder Standard, a new standard that places smallholders at its heart and enables smallholders to take advantage of what sustainability standards have to offer.

What is Bonsucro Connect?

This new online tool enables users to demonstrate and monitor sustainability through a powerful array of features, such as:

• Online version of the Bonsucro Calculator
• Visualisations of performance for producers for mills and farms (live benchmarking through a ‘smart dashboard’)
• Facilitation of the audit process
• Scorecards to track progress
• Availability in English, Portuguese & Spanish

What is the Smallholder Standard?

Smallholder farmers are a crucial component in many sugarcane industries around the world. To ensure that smallholders have the same opportunities for performance improvement as other producers, Bonsucro is embarking on a review of the Bonsucro Production Standard and the Certification System in the smallholder context. This session will explain how the new Smallholder Standard will work and how to assist smallholders in data collection and improvement.

Day 5 - Learning from Peers

During the morning session, external presentations will share examples and experiences of sustainability challenges they are facing and how they are working on resolving them. Common challenges will be discussed as well as collaborative actions happening across the region.

This session and the event will finish at 13:30.