Raízen’s ELO Programme officially recognised by Sustainable Agriculture Initiative

28th June 2022

(credit: Raízen)

Raízen’s ELO Programme has been officially benchmarked against the Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA), a system developed by the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI Platform). The ELO programme is a voluntary sustainability initiative for Raízen’s cane growers and suppliers, which certifies producers against 34 environmental, social and economic sustainability criteria. The scheme was developed in partnership between Raízen, Imaflora and Solidaridad.  

The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative is an international non-profit which encourages the alignment in the industry and collaboration between different industry platers, including sustainability standards, towards achieving sustainable outcomes. The organisation’s purpose is to accelerate the widespread adoption of sustainable agriculture practices and the transformation to sustainable food systems.  The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative’s FSA is a sustainable agriculture programme which allows food and drink businesses to assess, improve, and validate the sustainability of their supply chains. ELO has achieved a bronze level equivalence against the Farm Sustainability Assessment version 3.0. 

At Bonsucro, we welcome this news because the ELO scheme has been benchmarked against the Bonsucro Production Standard. Bonsucro has a benchmarking protocol that provides an accurate comparison of other sugarcane sustainability standards against the Bonsucro Production Standard. This serves to highlight alignment with, and synergies between, different sustainability schemes. The protocol was established in order to encourage a more inclusive approach to farm and mill performance improvement. 

A benchmarked scheme can achieve one of three levels of alignment: basic, intermediate, and comprehensive. Each level indicates how comparable the scheme is with the Bonsucro Production Standard. The ELO scheme was benchmarked in 2019, and was found to demonstrate intermediate alignment with the Bonsucro Production Standard.  

The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative recognising the ELO programme creates further alignment between sustainability schemes and standards in the sugarcane sector. We welcome collaboration and alignment to ensure that implementing sustainable practices is efficient for sugarcane producers. With Raízen’s recent incorporation of Biosev, the ELO scheme will present even more producers with the opportunity to improve their sustainability practices and align themselves with the Bonsucro Production Standard.