Governance

The Australian cotton industry’s Sustainability Working Group (SWG) coordinates PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. The SWG is comprised of representatives from Cotton Australia, CRDC, CottonInfo, myBMP and the Australian Cotton Shippers Association. The SWG reports to the Boards of Cotton Australia and CRDC. 

Risk management 

Each quarterly SWG meeting includes a scan of potential risks and opportunities. These are identified through sources including stakeholder feedback, peer-based norms, and market and regulatory developments. The SWG assesses emerging issues for materiality and considers the progress of existing actions to achieve targeted outcomes. If new or corrective actions are needed, these are discussed with key personnel in the industry’s well-established programs for research and development, extension, adoption, and policy. 

Stakeholder engagement

In addition to ongoing engagement through existing mechanisms including meetings, conferences and surveys, the Australian Cotton Sustainability Reference Group (ACSRG) was formed in 2021. It provides a formal two- way process to help the cotton industry better understand stakeholder expectations, discuss its sustainability performance, and be questioned or guided where needed by a diverse group of experts and thought leaders. 

The ACSRG involves representatives from all major cotton stakeholder groups, including cotton apparel brands and retailers, environmental organisations, First Nations peoples, governments, merchants, regulators, community organisations, health and safety, cotton growers, researchers, input providers and other broadacre agriculture sustainability frameworks. 

We work hard to provide a format and agenda that meets ACSRG expectations. The ACSRG has asked to meet every six months via an online forum to maximise efficiency and minimise greenhouse gas emissions. 

Read more about our stakeholder engagement:

• Stakeholder communication and engagement
• Australian cotton sustainability - past engagement
• Sustainability Targets Stakeholder Consultation Report Executive Summary - December 2020

The global sustainability reporting environment has multiple competing standards and methods. This creates confusion across industries and value chains.

To provide more clarity for the cotton industry, the sector has spent the past two years revamping its sustainability data framework.

The framework uses the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) family of sustainability standards as a starting point. These are expected to be widely used by customers, investors, and other stakeholders and include the standard behind mandatory Climate-Related Financial Disclosure legislation.

It adopts the language and most indicators of these standards, refined through cross-checking against 16 reporting standards and guidelines¹. This process produced about 150 indicators covering environmental, social, and economic sustainability at an industry scale.

These indicators have also been condensed into a more practical set of 44 indicators that every farm is encouraged to measure if they wish. Most are already measured by farmers, or readily available. These farm indicators are provided as a starting point to remove confusion – if every farmer and their advisers measure the same thing, farm sustainability will become much clearer.

The framework does not cover every standard in full, and industry-wide data is not yet available for every indicator. However, it provides most of the information customers and investors need, all in a single database for the Australian cotton industry.

This resource can solve the problem customers have accessing sustainability data from complex global supply chains. It supports their reporting obligations and makes it easier for them to source Australian cotton.

Importantly, the framework is not just a checklist. Because it is cross-checked against multiple standards, it aims to measure the right things once, for multiple uses in addition to sustainability reporting. Every indicator has been chosen to give insights into the natural and human resources that underpin cotton production, to support farm and industry decisions. 

The project was supported by the Australian Government’s National Agriculture Traceability Grants Program as a proof of concept for efficient and consistent agricultural sustainability reporting. It has been shared widely with other industries and stakeholders and continues to support harmonisation of sustainability indicators across sectors and value chains.

The framework is designed for adaptation by any industry. By using it as a starting point, organisations can save time identifying indicators for mandatory and voluntary disclosures and improve consistency with other sectors.

The Australian cotton sustainability data framework, with both industry-scale and farm-scale indicators, is available for download and use here.

It will continue to evolve as the industry works with stakeholders to deliver consistent sustainability reporting across Australian agriculture and as global expectations change.