Ana Carla Leite de Almeida , Carlos Bueno , Allan Dale , Rachel Hay , Ben Jarihani , Yvette Everingham , Stewart Lockie
{"title":"澳大利亚甘蔗种植中ESG标准的整合:加速ESG采用和创新的协同设计方法","authors":"Ana Carla Leite de Almeida , Carlos Bueno , Allan Dale , Rachel Hay , Ben Jarihani , Yvette Everingham , Stewart Lockie","doi":"10.1016/j.agsy.2025.104438","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Context</h3><div>Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices have become critical for the agricultural sector, particularly for high-impact and sensitive consumer demand industries like sugarcane. In Australia, the sugarcane industry faces mounting environmental and regulatory pressures, including concerns over nutrient and pesticide runoff affecting the Great Barrier Reef, climate change-driven, water resource challenges, and the need to reduce carbon emissions.</div></div><div><h3>Objective</h3><div>Aiming to enhance environmental performance and facilitate access to environmental markets and new income streams, this research focuses on developing and testing an ESG Rapid Assessment framework tailored to sugarcane farmers in North Queensland, Australia.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>In this research we adopted a co-design approach, integrating stakeholder insights and industry needs to develop the ESG tool, to facilitate the adoption of ESG standards on farm.</div></div><div><h3>Results and conclusions</h3><div>Findings highlight the importance of simplified ESG tools, clear implementation roadmaps, and ongoing support to drive adoption. Addressing knowledge gaps, improving data collection, and aligning policy incentives will be crucial for fostering transparency, sustainability, and long-term economic resilience while minimising regulatory burdens. Results from two case studies involving sugarcane producers and stakeholders showed that over 75 % of participants found the ESG assessment easy to use, and 62.5 % considered it valuable in supporting their ESG management. However, only 25 % indicated a willingness to change practices, likely due to prior engagement in sustainability best practices. These findings validate the tool's usability and highlight key barriers and opportunities for ESG adoption in agriculture.</div></div><div><h3>Significance</h3><div>This research offers a practical and innovative tool for North Queensland sugarcane farmers to strengthen their sustainability credentials. The ESG Rapid Assessment tool serves as a gateway to capital and environmental markets, supporting the transition to new decarbonisation pathways. By empowering farmers with actionable insights, the tool can enhance resilience, drive sustainable practices, and contribute to achieve net-zero goals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7730,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Systems","volume":"229 ","pages":"Article 104438"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Integration of ESG standards in Australian sugarcane farming: A co-design approach to accelerate ESG adoption and innovation\",\"authors\":\"Ana Carla Leite de Almeida , Carlos Bueno , Allan Dale , Rachel Hay , Ben Jarihani , Yvette Everingham , Stewart Lockie\",\"doi\":\"10.1016/j.agsy.2025.104438\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"<div><h3>Context</h3><div>Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices have become critical for the agricultural sector, particularly for high-impact and sensitive consumer demand industries like sugarcane. In Australia, the sugarcane industry faces mounting environmental and regulatory pressures, including concerns over nutrient and pesticide runoff affecting the Great Barrier Reef, climate change-driven, water resource challenges, and the need to reduce carbon emissions.</div></div><div><h3>Objective</h3><div>Aiming to enhance environmental performance and facilitate access to environmental markets and new income streams, this research focuses on developing and testing an ESG Rapid Assessment framework tailored to sugarcane farmers in North Queensland, Australia.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>In this research we adopted a co-design approach, integrating stakeholder insights and industry needs to develop the ESG tool, to facilitate the adoption of ESG standards on farm.</div></div><div><h3>Results and conclusions</h3><div>Findings highlight the importance of simplified ESG tools, clear implementation roadmaps, and ongoing support to drive adoption. Addressing knowledge gaps, improving data collection, and aligning policy incentives will be crucial for fostering transparency, sustainability, and long-term economic resilience while minimising regulatory burdens. Results from two case studies involving sugarcane producers and stakeholders showed that over 75 % of participants found the ESG assessment easy to use, and 62.5 % considered it valuable in supporting their ESG management. However, only 25 % indicated a willingness to change practices, likely due to prior engagement in sustainability best practices. These findings validate the tool's usability and highlight key barriers and opportunities for ESG adoption in agriculture.</div></div><div><h3>Significance</h3><div>This research offers a practical and innovative tool for North Queensland sugarcane farmers to strengthen their sustainability credentials. The ESG Rapid Assessment tool serves as a gateway to capital and environmental markets, supporting the transition to new decarbonisation pathways. By empowering farmers with actionable insights, the tool can enhance resilience, drive sustainable practices, and contribute to achieve net-zero goals.</div></div>\",\"PeriodicalId\":7730,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Agricultural Systems\",\"volume\":\"229 \",\"pages\":\"Article 104438\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":6.1000,\"publicationDate\":\"2025-07-04\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Agricultural Systems\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"97\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X25001787\",\"RegionNum\":1,\"RegionCategory\":\"农林科学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q1\",\"JCRName\":\"AGRICULTURE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Agricultural Systems","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X25001787","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"AGRICULTURE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
Integration of ESG standards in Australian sugarcane farming: A co-design approach to accelerate ESG adoption and innovation
Context
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices have become critical for the agricultural sector, particularly for high-impact and sensitive consumer demand industries like sugarcane. In Australia, the sugarcane industry faces mounting environmental and regulatory pressures, including concerns over nutrient and pesticide runoff affecting the Great Barrier Reef, climate change-driven, water resource challenges, and the need to reduce carbon emissions.
Objective
Aiming to enhance environmental performance and facilitate access to environmental markets and new income streams, this research focuses on developing and testing an ESG Rapid Assessment framework tailored to sugarcane farmers in North Queensland, Australia.
Methods
In this research we adopted a co-design approach, integrating stakeholder insights and industry needs to develop the ESG tool, to facilitate the adoption of ESG standards on farm.
Results and conclusions
Findings highlight the importance of simplified ESG tools, clear implementation roadmaps, and ongoing support to drive adoption. Addressing knowledge gaps, improving data collection, and aligning policy incentives will be crucial for fostering transparency, sustainability, and long-term economic resilience while minimising regulatory burdens. Results from two case studies involving sugarcane producers and stakeholders showed that over 75 % of participants found the ESG assessment easy to use, and 62.5 % considered it valuable in supporting their ESG management. However, only 25 % indicated a willingness to change practices, likely due to prior engagement in sustainability best practices. These findings validate the tool's usability and highlight key barriers and opportunities for ESG adoption in agriculture.
Significance
This research offers a practical and innovative tool for North Queensland sugarcane farmers to strengthen their sustainability credentials. The ESG Rapid Assessment tool serves as a gateway to capital and environmental markets, supporting the transition to new decarbonisation pathways. By empowering farmers with actionable insights, the tool can enhance resilience, drive sustainable practices, and contribute to achieve net-zero goals.
期刊介绍:
Agricultural Systems is an international journal that deals with interactions - among the components of agricultural systems, among hierarchical levels of agricultural systems, between agricultural and other land use systems, and between agricultural systems and their natural, social and economic environments.
The scope includes the development and application of systems analysis methodologies in the following areas:
Systems approaches in the sustainable intensification of agriculture; pathways for sustainable intensification; crop-livestock integration; farm-level resource allocation; quantification of benefits and trade-offs at farm to landscape levels; integrative, participatory and dynamic modelling approaches for qualitative and quantitative assessments of agricultural systems and decision making;
The interactions between agricultural and non-agricultural landscapes; the multiple services of agricultural systems; food security and the environment;
Global change and adaptation science; transformational adaptations as driven by changes in climate, policy, values and attitudes influencing the design of farming systems;
Development and application of farming systems design tools and methods for impact, scenario and case study analysis; managing the complexities of dynamic agricultural systems; innovation systems and multi stakeholder arrangements that support or promote change and (or) inform policy decisions.