Did you know that cotton uses more insecticides than any other commodity? Or that there are over 100 million individual cotton farmers in 75 countries? In light of recent efforts in this important crop, what lessons can cotton share with other crops?

I recently had the honor of sharing my reflections on the six sustainability lessons that producers of commodities would want to know at the annual intergovernmental forum of the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC). One is that we must continue to evolve beyond a compliance mentality of ticking boxes to measuring actual performance to drive continuous improvement because sustainability is simply not a static goal. 

In addition to focusing on learning across crops, the FAO and many other conference participants discussed how best to advance common cotton sustainability indicators – something which sits at the heart of COSA’s mission.
 
Indeed, the know-how of COSA partners across crops is becoming particularly relevant for new Sustainable Development Goals which come into effect on January 1st. We look forward to working even more with countries and companies as the SDG measurement components are developed early in 2016.

Finally, as we close out a year busy with activity – 19 projects, six new partners, and the expansion of our work into cotton and sugar – we pause to thank all of you who make our work possible.

On behalf of the COSA team we wish you the most pleasant holidays and look forward to working together in 2016 and beyond.

With warm regards,

Daniele Giovannucci
COSA, President

 

COSA joins Conservation International, Starbucks in Sustainable Coffee Challenge

To kick off the Paris Climate Change Conference, COSA supported the launch of the Sustainable Coffee Challenge – an ambitious initiative by Conservation International, Starbucks, the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) and other partners to make coffee the world’s first sustainable commodity. Currently, nearly 50% of the world’s coffee is being produced according to…more

 

Innovative methodologies advance impact assessment

  New methodological advancements that will contribute to improving impact assessments of sustainability initiatives were recently unveiled by COSA and its partner the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) at the…more

 

COSA celebrates lessons from one year of Sustainability Performance Monitoring

2015 has seen the launch of a new COSA Sustainability Performance Monitoring system – a cutting-edge tool that allows real-time views of key sustainability performance indicators. Now in use across three continents, we reflect on lessons learned and can now offer…more

 

COSA & GeoTraceability partner to improve livelihoods of Côte d’Ivoire cocoa farmers

COSA and partner GeoTraceability will be working together to advise Fairtrade on determining production costs of cocoa farming in Côte d’Ivoire. The work will examine…more

 

COSA welcomes new staff

We are delighted to welcome our new colleague Dr. Gayatri Ramnath, as Regional Research Coordinator for Asia.

Follow @theCOSA to #SEESustainability in action

We are pleased to announce that you can now follow COSA on Twitter @theCOSA_org to stay up to date and share our vision for sustainable agriculture.