To date many industries have been unable to extend their social and environmental corporate profile to the way in which sugarcane is cultivated and processed; while many national or local producer groups have high social and environmental production guidelines, there is not a global set of sustainable-sugar practices, principles and criteria by which industries, companies and investors alike can define their sugar interests.

What is the Better Sugarcane Initiative?
The Better Sugarcane Initiative (BSI) is a collaboration of sugar retailers, investors, traders, producers and NGOs who are committed to sustainable sugar by establishing principles and criteria that are applied in the sugar growing regions of the world through regionally specific strategies and tools. The BSI aims to reduce the impact of sugarcane production on the environment in measurable ways that will also enable sugar production in a manner that contributes to social and economic benefits for sugar farmers and all others concerned with the sugar supply chain.

What is the goal of BSI?
The goal is, through the encouragement of better management practices (BMP’s), to reduce farm and other sugar processing impacts. The BSI recognises that BMP’s can only be a means to an end however and not the end itself. Incremental improvement through the establishment of dynamic and ever improving benchmarks and baselines is the overall objective. The BSI recognises the opportunities and limitations of BMP’s as a tool for environmental management and improving overall environmental performance and reducing waste in a world where reduced impacts are demanded by governments, investors, buyers and NGO’s. The BSI sees BMP’s as a tool for producers to increase their competitiveness in markets that are becoming increasingly competitive. The BSI is interested in building capacity.

Caption: The trialling of companion planting of soy beans at the out of hand stage of the sugar cane crop ,has been shown to increase production in trials by 50% in Two Year old crops and 30% in one old harvested crops. Photo courtesy Robert Quirk.

What are the social and environmental impacts of sugarcane?
The sugarcane industry has some inherent advantages. Sugar is a widely used and natural food ingredient. Sugarcane is widely grown around the world and provides employment opportunities for many thousands and uplifts rural areas. Sugar production does not involve the use of any hazardous or toxic materials and there are no hazardous or toxic effluents or emissions. The sugar production process is self-sufficient in energy, providing all the energy for sugar manufacture (and in some cases the power for irrigation as well) from bagasse, the renewable fibre content of cane, which when burnt emits no sulfur dioxide.

To enhance the sustainability of the cane sugar industry, all  important issues must be addressed. Sugarcane is a water intensive crop that remains in the soil for 12 months of the year using approximately one million litres of water to produce 12.5 tonnes of commercial cane. Apart from the responsible use of water, agricultural practices should preserve or improve the soil quality. The issues relating to biodiversity must be considered. Effluents and emissions must meet accepted standards.

Why sugarcane?
While sources of sugar include beet, differences in production and processing practices for beet and cane would necessitate different guidelines.

The Better Sugarcane Initiative (BSI) is focused on sugarcane due to its global prevalence... sugarcane is grown in 103 countries and accounts for 60-70% of sugar production, a figure which is expected to grow as the EU Sugar Regime is reformed and biofuels become prominent on the global market.

Caption: Discovery Channel filming trials using Agri-char ( waste products burned under low oxygen and low temperatures and produce a stable carbon source for many hundreds of years) in sugar cane, early results of the trials have been shown to reduce Nitrous oxide emissions in laboratory and farm trials by 90% . Photo courtesy of Robert Quirk.