Reliable and comparable data collection to demonstrate good practice and drive further improvement.
Three floriculture sustainability standards have been recognized compliant with a new set of environmental criteria for improved record keeping of inputs, set up by the Floriculture Sustainability Initiative (FSI) in collaboration with IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative.
IDH and FSI collaborate for a more transparent and responsible floriculture supply chain by 2025. FSI has captured this in ambitions to reduce the living wage gap for workers and the environmental footprint for certain products, and to have 90% of their products responsibly produced and traded in 2025 based on new environmental and social requirements.
The Kenya Flower Council Flowers and Ornamentals Sustainability Standard, MPS (both ABC. SQ and GAP) and Florverde® Sustainable Flowers are the first standards recognized compliant with the new environmental criteria, which are now part of the FSI basket of standards. This includes criteria on integrated pest management and reliable record-keeping of inputs such as agrochemicals, fertilizers, or energy.
FSI members and IDH have developed the FSI Basket of Standards to help private partners to responsibly source their products. The FSI Basket of Standards was created in alignment with IDH’s approach on benchmarking standards, which aims to tackle the proliferation of sustainability standards by promoting transparency and comparability among them. In doing so, the FSI basket of standards acknowledges the great variety of standards and certifications whilst contributing to higher levels of sustainability and avoiding unnecessary duplication of audits, confusion of market players and increased costs.
Standards in the Basket are benchmarked against international reference points for Good Agricultural Practices (the GAP scope) and Social practices (the Social scope). With the addition of the environmental criteria on 1 January 2021, the FSI basket contains a third (environmental) scope. This environmental scope supports the mainstreaming of environmental principles across compliance standards, strengthening the FSI basket as international reference for sustainable practices.
The Kenya Flower Council Flowers and Ornamentals Sustainability Standard, MPS-ABC and Florverde® Sustainable Flowers are the first standards to be recognized compliant with the environmental criteria. Their compliance will enable growers and traders to set up data-driven best practices and to measure performance over time through:
- Standardized record keeping on key inputs like agrochemicals, fertilizers, energy and water;
- Assurance of quality performance of standards and audits;
- Transparency and the comparison of performance over time and space.
Other floriculture schemes are currently being reviewed for benchmarking as well. The benchmarking is open for floriculture schemes that want to demonstrate good environmental practice and to be recognized and accepted by FSI and its members.