How to prioritize your sustainability actions

Farmers deliver food, feed, and fuel to the world, and while these services are essential, it is also necessary that they are provided in a sustainable way.

Your agricultural business, like every business, is deeply intertwined with environmental, social, and governance concerns, and this inseparable connection represents risks to avoid but also valuable opportunities to pursue if you know how to utilize them.

If you own farmland, it can be beneficial to begin your sustainability documentation to stay ahead of the curve and stand out to potential collaborators. More and more legislation that aims to protect the environment, as well as societal and governance sustainability measures, is implemented every year, and as a farmer, it can be difficult to keep track of what that means for your business. One of the newly implemented proposals for the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), requires large companies to report on sustainability measures in their value chain. From next year, large companies will be required to report on sustainability in their value chain using standards developed by the EU.

That means that if you have an agribusiness that supplies, or wants to supply, produce to large companies like Nestlé, Orkla, or Unilever, or their suppliers, you have an opportunity to be more attractive to them if you have documented your sustainability actions and already know which further sustainability efforts you intend to focus on. Many farmers struggle with figuring out which sustainability actions to prioritize but that is what a “double materiality assessment” can help you with!

Sustainable development and ESG reports (Environmental, Social, and Governance) have come to stay, and Agroganic is here to help you navigate the possibilities that producing in a sustainable way and reporting on your sustainability measures offer.

What is a double materiality assessment?

A double materiality assessment is a type of sustainability and strategy analysis that will help you prioritize your sustainability actions and make it easier for you to decide which efforts to spend your time and money on.

This tool helps you identify which sustainability measures your business should prioritize while taking your specific risks and opportunities into account. The “double” in double materiality refers to assessing the importance of an activity’s impact in relation to BOTH the impact on environment and society AND the financial risks or opportunities associated with it for your company.

Sustainability actions can be taken to avoid risks of impacting the environment negatively (such as pollution), but they can also be taken to increase opportunities and to impact the environment positively. For example, if you are considering implementing regenerative farming methods in your operation, it can impact the environment positively as well as provide increased opportunities to work with big companies that demand regenerative crops.

Agroganic’s experts are ready to help

Agroganic’s team of consultants are experts in the field and have 18 years of experience with sustainability and strategy analyses from the agricultural and financial sector, and we are ready to help. Contact our strategy consultant Kirsten Marie Risbjerg at +4523225102 to learn more about how we can assist you with your double materiality assessment to prioritize your sustainability actions.