14 GLOBALLY, AGRICULTURE ANDfood companies are developing sustainability programs to build resiliency within their business, meet sustainability targets, and communicate environmental and social progress to stakeholders. The sustainability of an agri-food value chain starts with farmers and their approach to managing their operations. Moving along the value chain, each enterprise plays a role in advancing sustainability, from improving internal efficiency to setting targets that affect the actions of upstream and downstream businesses in their value chain. Sustainability is a broad topic and can hold different meanings depending on the context and balance across the sustainability pillars — social, economic, and environmental. Within the agricultural commodity sector and related value chains, there is currently an emphasis on sustainability-related targets and actions specific to climate change and land use conversion. Complementary, there is general recognition that farmers need to be economically and socially sustainable to adopt practices that result in climate-friendly outcomes, such as increasing the concentration of carbon stored in soils. WHAT IS CURRENTLY DRIVING SUSTAINABILITY DEMANDS IN VALUE CHAINS? Effects of climate change and biodiversity loss — Climate change can impact agricultural production by increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, changing precipitation patterns, pest and disease Sustainability and the value chain PERSPECTIVES OF PRIVATE SECTOR EFFORTS Lisa Ashton SOY CANADA’S SUSTAINABLE CANADIAN SOY PROGRAM WILL DEMONSTRATE THE SUSTAINABILITY OF CANADA’S SOYBEAN PRODUCTION. pressures, and warm annual average temperatures. These impacts and the subsequent risks and disruptions to value chains have motivated many food and agriculture companies to act and work towards decarbonizing their value chains while building their capacity to adapt to future changes. This action includes supporting the adoption of on-farm practices that can result in greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation. Within the private sector, there is also a growing understanding of the costs associated with inaction in mitigating climate change and protecting biodiversity. According to the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, over 50 per cent of the world's economic output is moderately or highly dependent on nature. Supporting and investing in the sustainability of sectors directly engaging with natural ecosystems, such as agriculture, is therefore critical to a strong economy. Private sector standards and guidance — recent developments in regulations and guidance for the private sector are beginning to provide some direction for how companies should account for, report, and set targets for GHG reductions along their value chains, including agriculture production. For example, companies with substantial value chain GHG emissions from agriculture and forestry (i.e., greater than 20 per cent) now have a framework for setting GHG targets through the Science Based Target Initiative's (SBTI) Food, Land, and Agriculture Guidance. The Greenhouse Gas Protocol, a well-established international organization, has drafted guidance for companies with value chain GHG emissions from agriculture and forestry to measure and track progress towards GHG targets. These frameworks are beginning to create a uniform standard for companies to effectively include agriculture in their GHG inventories, track progress, and Sustainability
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