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. To bring more clarity to its reporting, the Australian cotton industry is revamping its PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. sustainability data framework to more closely align with the methods we believe customers of Australian food and fibre are most likely to use in future. 

Data in our new sustainability data framework is now structured into the condition, dependency, impact, and risk and opportunity indicators contained in new reporting guidance or standards like the International Sustainability Standards Board, Taskforce on Nature Related Financial Disclosures, and Science Based Targets for Nature. 

Intended Outcome 

Sustainability can be confusing. The revamped data framework aims to measure the right data once, and make that data work hard for us in many ways, including:

• Sustainability disclosures: Giving customers and investors the complicated sustainability reporting data they need for the entire industry in one place
• Valuing natural capital: Using global standards to provide industry-scale assessments of its natural and human capital
• Decision-making: Supporting better farm and industry decisions with more insights into the impact of farm and industry actions on the natural and human resources we depend on.

Scalability and replicability 

This project is designed to be scalable and repeatable across all agriculture sectors. It serves as a proof-of-concept for other Australian agricultural sustainability frameworks and businesses, providing a model that can be adapted to consistently measure environmental, social, and economic capital across different sectors. 

We regularly share outputs so others can learn from and contribute to our work. 

Completed Milestone outputs:

• Project summary
• Draft revamped sustainability data framework
• Natural and social capitals assessment process
• Terms of Reference: Australian Agriculture Sustainability Framework natural and social capital activity group

Future Milestone outputs will include:

• Natural and social capital valuation methods
• Draft natural and social capital assessment
• Integrated Report.