Emerging ESG commitments in focus

Agriculture and livestock producers getting on the front foot of the emerging Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) commitments of investors and customers was the focus of a recent ESG in Agriculture Conference.

Presenters to the conference included Sheep Sustainability Framework, Sustainability Steering Group Chair, Dr Scott Williams and MLA Sustainability Frameworks and Stakeholders Manager, Edwina Clowes. The conference was the brainchild of sheep industry leader and former SPA Chair Chris Mirams, convened by the North East Catchment Management Authority and held at La Trobe University in Wodonga on Thursday 28^th July 2022.

The focus of the conference was on the increasing importance and requirements for investors and customers, internationally and nationally, to demonstrate and disclose not just their governance commitments but their environmental and social impacts and commitments, and what that means for our red meat and wool producers.

Dr Scott Williams and Edwina Clowes spoke of the importance of the industry-led Sheep Sustainability and Australian Beef Sustainability Frameworks and their importance as an industry-wide sustainability report card that aligned with international sustainability frameworks and standards. They reinforced the commitment to a pathway of continuous improvement and outlined the strategic plans and regular materiality assessments of the sustainability priorities important to both industry and external stakeholders. Critical to this goal is the commitment to extensive stakeholder engagement, both within industry and with external government, investor and customer stakeholders, and their commitment to the most robust, credible, and contemporary data to demonstrate industry performance and progress.

Dr Williams spoke at length on the Sheep Sustainability Framework’s new Strategic Plan, the significance of a number of key projects the SSF undertook last financial year including the Sheep Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), National Animal Husbandry Producer Survey and the Fractional Groundcover Tool that will establish important benchmarks and data sources for the Sheep Sustainability Framework and the Framework’s Stakeholder Engagement commitments for the new financial year.