Beyond the Boundary: Whole-farm 'ESG footprint package' is the way forward

The format was not only refreshing with short, sharp presentations, interactive question and answer sessions, roaming roundtables and thought-provoking debate, it was also an encouraging sign that cross-industry collaboration could soon become the new norm.

As a strong advocate for breaking down industry silos to reduce duplication and inefficiencies that can get in the way of solving the complex issues impacting the Australian food and fibre industries, I was thrilled by their approach.

You're possibly thinking, 'what is ESG anyway?'

ESG refers to environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and corporate governance. Goals and targets in this space help us signpost to global customers and consumers where we're headed in areas that matter to them.

Clear measurement and reporting mechanisms help us communicate our commitment to delivering healthy, sustainably produced food and fibre to the retail shelf, showcase progress and guide investment in opportunity areas.

But is all this just an unnecessary burden on already stretched, hardworking farmers who dedicate significant time and energy feeding and clothing a growing global population?

This question was passionately debated by Gillian Fennel, Ian McConnel, Alison Southwell, and Sam Trethewey.

While the vote from conference delegates went in favour of the affirmative team arguing that it is an unnecessary burden, the audience was closely divided with both teams putting forward excellent arguments.

Whichever side of the debate you fall on, I think it's fair to say that ESG reporting isn't going away anytime soon.

What's important as an industry is minimising the burden on all parties and utilising our collective resources to make the process simple, practical, and efficient, delivering true value back to the farm gate.

I firmly believe that there would be very few, if any, farmers out there that would tell you they want to farm unsustainably.

What often distracts us from moving ahead in these conversations isn't intent, but rather a lack of clarity around our current performance, the need to report and concerns around how much time it could take up.

Take the beef industry's carbon footprint for example; our ability to demonstrate a reduction in the industry's net carbon footprint by 64.1 per cent since 2005, on a pathway to carbon neutrality is a powerful story for the Australian beef industry.

However, for individual producers or supply chains to measure and report on their carbon footprint the process is currently cumbersome and costly.

Tools such as the MLA carbon calculator are helping us to move in the right direction. However, carbon is just one piece of the broader ESG puzzle - and a confusing one at that.

We need to prioritise the delivery of a whole-farm 'ESG footprint package' that provides all Australian farmers - no matter what they are producing - with a simple one-stop-shop for ESG reporting and measurement.

Not only should this paint a full ESG picture in one place, but also help producers identify relevant opportunities that will support them to improve business resilience, productivity, profitability and maintain or grow their market access.

From my experience, inaction is often caused by simply not knowing where to start or a lack of clear incentives to make it a priority.

The Agricultural Innovation Australia (AIA) cross-sectoral carbon calculator that's being developed with some of Australia's rural research and development corporations (RDCs), including Grains Research & Development Corporation, Meat & Livestock Australia, Australian Eggs, Australian Pork Ltd, and AgriFutures Australia, is a very exciting recent development.

Let's ensure we keep this momentum going with farmers front of mind when designing solutions.