Sustainability reporting: what you need to know
Through the cotton industry’s Sustainability Working Group, CRDC and Cotton Australia are working to standardise sustainability reporting across the cotton industry. We asked the Australian Cotton Industry's sustainability adviser Chris Cosgrove to tell us what sustainability reporting is, what it means and how it can be managed.
What is sustainability reporting?
A sustainability report describes how a company or organisation identifies and manages its social, economic and environmental risks and opportunities. There are many different sustainability reporting standards an entity can choose to base its sustainability report on. This has created a lot of inconsistency and confusion.
Two years ago, the cotton industry aimed to eliminate confusion by choosing the International Sustainability Standards Board standards to align with its PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. Sustainability Framework. It is the standard Australia’s new mandatory climate-related disclosure legislation is based on and most likely to be used by our customers and investors in the future.
A major aspect of PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. has been establishing sustainability indicators for Australian cotton production. We’ve also been working with the beef and grains sectors to ensure exactly the same sustainability language and indicators are being used across industries. That’s the only way we can eliminate confusion for our growers who generally always grow winter crops and/or have livestock.
How does cotton’s sustainability reporting work?
Our performance against the indicators in PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. creates an industry-level picture of sustainability. By having the data our customers and investors need, it makes it easier for them to buy or invest in Australian cotton. Data for these indicators comes from sources like the CRDC Grower Survey, however there is a need for a new method to provide broader yet ‘quality’ data that is more accurate, refined and relevant. The Australian cotton industry data platform – currently being developed by CRDC – is a major part our response to this issue (see story page 8). Not only will the platform give growers the ability to easily aggregate their own data to use and share how they see fit, with grower permission it could also allow industry-scale reporting and direct communication with the market.
Why are growers being asked for greenhouse gas emissions data?
It’s likely growers will be asked soon by merchants, gins, banks and others in the value chain for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data so these companies can comply with the Federal Government’s mandatory climate reporting. Growers are likely to be increasingly asked for other sustainability data as well. If they wish, growers can use the PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. sustainability indicators to start collecting the data these companies are likely to want.
In the near future, participation in the data platform will offer the best response to requests for data, as it will enable automation of this process, saving time, effort and costs for growers. Sustainability data kept in this platform will make it easier to respond to information requests, and ensure that data is collected once for many purposes – a grower’s sustainability data can also be used to inform better management decisions, benchmark performance and ensure access to all markets is on the table.
CRDC and Cotton Australia will be meeting with growers and others in the industry during 2025 to explain the sustainability framework and indicators, and how growers can use the data platform to communicate this data with merchants, gins or banks, as well as to hear from growers what they need to make the most of this in their farm business.
What is a mandatory greenhouse gas or climate report?
Sustainability reports are voluntary. Every sustainability report already includes a section on GHG. What has changed is many governments around the world, including Australia, are legislating mandating climate-related financial disclosures in annual financial reports. In Australia, mandatory reporting for large entities and large emitters started on 1 January 2025, while reporting for smaller entities and emitters will be phased in over coming years.
The content of a climate-related report is very similar to that of any good sustainability report. The only real difference is one part of a voluntary sustainability report (climate) must now be in the financial report of these entities and follow legislated guidelines for content.
Will broader sustainability reporting be made mandatory?
Climate-related reporting legislation is based on very clear guidance from the International Sustainability Standards Board, which in turn is based on the Taskforce for Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
The International Sustainability Standards Board also has general sustainability disclosure guidance. The environmental section of this guidance is based on the Taskforce for Nature-Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). You don’t have to be Nostradamus to see it is at least possible governments will mandate nature-related or broader sustainability-related disclosures, just as climate-related disclosures are now law.
What is CRDC doing?
CRDC’s response is two-fold, focusing on what we need to report, and investing in the solutions to enable this reporting.
Firstly, we are investing in the infrastructure to enable the collection, analysis and reporting of sustainability data through the supply chain by every single grower, through the industry data platform. Secondly, we are working to align and standardise reporting guidelines. As mentioned, there are many different reporting standards and guidelines making it really confusing for companies or organisations to know what to report. The good news for growers is that CRDC and Cotton Australia have been working for several years to revamp the cotton industry’s PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. Sustainability Framework and align it to the International Sustainability Standards Board. At the time, we thought this family of reporting standards would be the one customers and investors increasingly chose in future to report against.
As a result, sitting behind PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. is a framework that allows us to report for the whole Australian cotton industry the content our customers and investors are looking for about our industry, including:
- our governance structures for managing sustainability
- our process for identifying and monitoring climate and sustainability risks and opportunities
- our strategy for managing the most important risks and opportunities
- our indicators and metrics to show impacts and progress
- The same indicators and metrics can be used by individual farms, as well as for the whole industry.
What does this mean for growers?
It’s likely you will be asked soon by merchants, gins and other large companies you deal with for GHG data so they can comply with mandatory climate reporting. They may also increasingly ask for other sustainability data – either because it’s important to their voluntary reporting now, or because legislation is introduced to mandate it in future. So, what should growers be thinking about?
Some growers may choose only to react to requests for information from entities in your value chain. This might be the easiest option right now but will be increasingly time-consuming and frustrating as requests for data increase.
For those who want to collect and aggregate data that merchants, banks and others in their value chain are likely to need, the indicators from the PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. Sustainability Framework have been designed for this purpose. Further participation in the industry data platform will give growers the ability to have all the information they need in one place, making it much easier to respond to information requests. Some growers are also producing their own voluntary sustainability reports.
What sustainability data should growers collect?
The cotton industry’s aim is to have every agriculture sector and every business in the cotton value chain – farms, banks, agronomists, gins, merchants and others – all using the same sustainability language and indicators. That’s the only way we can eliminate confusion.
Therefore, the revamped PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. indicators are being shared with other agriculture industries and the Australian Agriculture Sustainability Framework to work towards rapid harmonisation of sustainability indicators across Australian agriculture. With so many people needing to have a say in harmonised reporting this is taking a lot of time to get right, and there may be more tweaks. The table on this page outlines current recommendations for indicators every industry should report, and every farm business could report if it wants to.
CRDC also been working on a new global methodology that will allow the industry to work on building a foundation for reporting metrics and impact in a consistent way that meets the needs of the value chain (see story next page).
For more
Chris Cosgrove
This article appears courtesy of the Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC). It was published in the (Autumn 2025) edition of CRDC’s Spotlight magazine: www.crdc.com.au/spotlight