Benchmark shows: ‘On the way to PlanetProof’ meets FSA Gold level equivalence for sustainable farming
Publication date: 23 June 2020The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform (SAI Platform) confirms the equivalence of the sustainability standard ‘On the way to PlanetProof’ for plant products at Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA) Gold level. This is a result of a recent benchmark of the standard against SAI Platform’s FSA 2.1. The equivalence supports the ambition of SMK in the development of its standard ‘On the way to PlanetProof’ to an international environmental quality label for AgriFood.
Journey
SMK is the organization that runs the certification scheme On the way to PlanetProof. Managing director Gijs Dröge is proud of the acknowledgment of the benchmark against the FSA criteria: “The past four years we have worked hard to restructure the certification scheme for international purposes. We performed this restructuring in close cooperation with our stakeholders, such as NGOs, trade, retail, and importantly the growers. Today, with almost 35.000 hectares, there is a wide range of plant products with an On the way to PlanetProof certificate. These are produced by more than 1.600 farmers in The Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Italy, France, and Portugal. We are convinced that the equivalence with SAI Platform’s FSA Gold level can help international stakeholders to estimate the credibility of On the way to PlanetProof.”
Achievement on FSA
The FSA Gold level of the benchmark shows that On the way to PlanetProof is compliant with 100% of the ‘Essential’ questions, 100% of the ‘Basic’ questions and a minimum of 75% of the ‘Advanced’ questions (PlanetProof scored 86% for The Netherlands). FSA has 17 sustainability themes, including the management of Soil, Water and Nutrients, Biodiversity, Crop Protection and Greenhouse Gas Emissions etc.
Joe Rushton, FSA Programme Manager comments: ‘The result shows that farms implementing the ‘On the way to PlanetProof’ standard reach the highest level of FSA equivalence, addressing over 85% of our advanced questions. It demonstrates their ability to confidently meet the sustainability expectations of FSA users.’
Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform (SAI Platform)
SAI Platform is a global membership association for the food and drink industry. The Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA) is one of SAI Platform’s tools to drive sustainability. It is a set of 112 sustainable farming questions covering environmental, social, and economic issues. Besides the use as an on-farm assessment and improvement tool, the FSA is used to benchmark standards and certification schemes. As such the FSA serves as an industry reference point for sustainable sourcing.
On the way to PlanetProof
On the way to PlanetProof is an independent environmental quality label for AgriFood products such as potatoes, vegetables, fruit, dairy, eggs, flowers, flower bulbs, trees and plants and processed products. On the way to PlanetProof-farmers and growers strive towards a cultivation that is in balance with the earth’s capacity. This is a process of continuously taking further steps in order to reduce the depletion of our earth’s resources (‘On the way to…’).