28th February 2023

In January 2022, we published version 5.1 of our Production Standard, after a thorough consultation and revision process. The Standard came into force in September 2022. After listening to some of our members’ concerns about implementing the new Standard, we decided to re-examine some of the new indicators. As such, we are conducting an interim revision of version 5.1 of the Bonsucro Production Standard.

The objective of this revision is to clarify, correct, and adjust the standard and associated documents based on the feedback from internal and external stakeholders since its publication.

The interim revision is in line with clause 6.4 on ‘Changes post publication’ of the  Bonsucro Standard Development and Revision Procedure. As it is not a full revision, we will not be running public consultations.

Timeline

We will process the relevant feedback received on the BPS 5.1 between its publication in January 2022 and the beginning of March 2023. The following graphic shows the timeline:

What’s included in the interim revision?

We will analyse the feedback collected from channels such as:

• our Standard email address: standards@bonsucro.com
• online question and answer sessions with members and non-members
• feedback from certification bodies and members from audits that were conducted against the BPS 5.1
• comments made by members to the Bonsucro team.

A lot of the feedback was related to clarifying language and tightening up definitions which our Standards and Assurance team will work their way through. However, some topics need further research and to gather experts’ perspectives. All of these topics have been compiled into an escalation list.

In addition to using existing feedback, we will run targeted consultations with some of the mills that sit on our Members’ Council.

Piloting the new Standard

We will conduct several pilot audits to test implementation and auditability of the Bonsucro Production Standard 5.1. The first pilots were set up in 2020, but due to the global pandemic only two pilot projects took place; one in India and the other one in Brazil.

We will continue piloting in Australia, Mexico and Central America over the coming months. The pilots will make sure that we conduct audits in different regions worldwide to collect relevant input which we will use in the interim revision.

The results of the pilots will be aggregated and anonymised and published on our website this year.

Who is working on the interim revision?

We have a created a Standards Committee that is composed of cross-cutting key areas of the organisation essential to the successful development and implementation of the standard. If they need to, the Standards Committee can escalate queries or topics to our Members’ Council, Technical Advisory Board, and Board of Directors when needed.

The current Standards Committee is comprised of:

Next steps

The interim revision is already underway, and we are confident the changes will improve the quality of our Production Standard. We will share meeting minutes and updates about the process on the Production Standard Interim Revision page of our website. We will also share news through our monthly newsletter and social media channels.

We have developed terms of reference for the interim revision which are available to download here.

In the meantime, producers can still get certified against version 4.2 or 5.1 of the Production Standard. The details for the transition period and policy between these two standards are on our website here.

If you have any questions, you can contact standards@bonsucro.com.