The Australian cotton industry, the first in Australian agriculture to independently assess its environmental impact in 1991, has been working to improve its sustainability ever since. Proud of its progress, the industry recognizes that there is still more to achieve. Managing sustainability, like growing cotton, is a complex process. The industry doesn't claim to be perfect but aims to lead in sustainable cotton production globally.

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 and opportunity 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.

Impact and metrics

Work to revamp the PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. sustainability data framework to directly align to the reporting standards and guidance we think customers of Australian food and fibre are most likely to use, as a proof of concept for other agriculture industries to adapt to increase consistency and coordination across sectors, is detailed here.

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, 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.

PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. is the Australian cotton industry’s sustainability framework. It recognises sustainability is integral to the industry’s future and provides a path for the entire industry to stay in business. Through a process of stakeholder consultation and review, eight environmental, economic and social sustainability topics have been assessed as being most important to cotton growers and stakeholders inside and outside the industry.

PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. guides the industry’s work to:

• identify the environmental, social and economic topics assessed as being most important to industry and its stakeholders
• coordinate a whole-of-industry strategy to manage these topics
• engage with stakeholders on actions and progress.

PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. is currently targeted at on-farm cotton production. It is not a compulsory standard or a brand. It is a framework that recognises sustainability is an integral part of doing business, and provides a path for the entire industry to benefit from improving sustainability performance.

The data framework behind PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. is currently being revamped in an ambitious Australian proof of concept to cotton and other agriculture industries to collect better sustainability data and use it for more purposes. Find out more about the project.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are widely recognised as providing a global pathway to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we all face. The SDGs provide goals and targets for every individual, business, industry and nation to work towards. The Stakeholder Consultation Report Executive Summary - December 2020 provides a summary of the most relevant SDGs to the Australian cotton industry, and how we are working to do our share to contribute to them.

• 1991: First Independent Environmental Audit. Recommendations made to reduce the industry’s environmental impact.
• 2003: Second Independent Environment Audit. Found all 44 recommendations from the First Audit had been implemented, and provided new recommendations.
• 2012: Third Independent Environmental Assessment. Six recommendations for improvement, including more regular reporting on environmental impacts.
• 2021: Fourth Independent Environmental Assessment. The assessment found the Australian cotton industry had delivered fully on four of the six recommendations in the 2012 Third Independent Environmental Assessment and has made significant progress on the other two.
  The assessment also nominated 16 new recommendations which will be assessed in another ten years.

• 2014: First Sustainability Report provided data on 45 social, economic and environmental indicators.
• 2016: Sustainability Working Group (SWG) formed to oversee the industry’s ongoing commitment to sustainability reporting and implementation.
• 2016-2019: Priority sustainability topics developed by the SWG through technical advice, research, stakeholder consultation, and validation. In 2016, 35 internal and external stakeholders attended a Cotton Sustainability Stakeholder Forum to provide guidance and feedback to the Australian cotton industry on sustainability issues, draft targets, indicators and reporting. Other stakeholders were contacted directly. Feedback from this Forum was used to refine targets and release a Background Reference Paper later in 2016 that outlined eight sustainability topics and associated indicators, and provided rationale for their selection. In 2018, feedback was sought on draft sustainability targets from stakeholders representing customers and retailers, suppliers and service providers, interest groups, agriculture RDCs, all levels of government, community groups, employment representatives, cotton industry representatives, the Cotton Innovation Network and the research community.
• 2019: Second Sustainability Report for the five years to June 2019 provided data on the eight priority social, economic and environmental topics. Data gathered report allowed us to compare our performance in priority topics from 2014 to 2019. This highlighted we are on track in some topics, and in other topics we can do better.
• 2020-22: Sustainability targets finalised. Small expert groups reviewed data from 2014 and 2019 Sustainability Reports. This process has resulted in draft targets for several priority topics. It has also shown other priority topics need more time to develop indicators or targets, especially those that have a high degree of crossover with other Australian agriculture sectors. Having consistency with other agriculture sustainability frameworks is very important to the cotton industry. Stakeholder consultation on draft targets was undertaken from mid-2020, as outlined by the Stakeholder Consultation Report Executive Summary - December 2020. Work continues on the finalisation of the targets and stakeholder engagement, including the formation of the Australian Cotton Sustainability Reference Group in 2021.