O Bonsucro (ou Better Sugarcane Initiative, Click here to learn more) is a global certification launched in July 2011 which assesses the sustainability of products made from sugarcane, is currently the most used certification model in Brazil, with 20 sugarcane companies and more than 437 thousand hectares (he has) of guaranteed sugarcane, which equals more than 1,7% of the sugarcane grown in the world. This is one of the main conclusions of the study. “Benchmark of cane-derived renewable jet fuel against major sustainability standards”, English publication released on 20 of July by the Institute of Trade Studies and International Negotiations (ICONS).
the document of 73 pages, coordinated by the director general of the entity, André Meloni Nassar, and written by researchers Paula Moura, Gabriel Granço and Leila Harfuch, was prepared at the request of Embraer companies, Boeing and Inter-American Development Bank (BID), great enthusiasts of the use of biofuels with a focus on aviation. According to the study, Bonsucro is the certification that best establishes assessment criteria in accordance with the Brazilian reality.
"No moment, Bonsucro is the most viable model in the case of the Brazilian sugar-energy sector. To long term, other certifications such as Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB) and International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) can also be made possible, but there is a need for continuous improvement of the criteria used by them, because some of them may not even make sense for Brazil,” observes researcher Paula Moura.
According to the ICONE specialist, the main obstacles found during the analyzes carried out by the RSB and the ISCC are related to the themes "food security" and "expansion of sugarcane cultivation." On the other hand, several extremely restrictive environmental and labor requirements mentioned in these certifications are already covered by Brazilian legislation and widely practiced by ethanol producing companies, sugar and bioelectricity.
Bonsucro benefits acquired in parallel
Two clear examples of this type of measure are the Agro-environmental Protocol for the Sugar-Energy Sector, that anticipated of 2031 for 2017 the deadline for the end of the use of controlled fire to facilitate manual harvesting in sugarcane fields, and the National Commitment to Improve Working Conditions in Sugarcane, a sealed agreement between the Federal Government, entrepreneurs and workers in the sector in order to value the best practices aimed at the health and safety of workers who work directly in the sugarcane fields.
“We already are 2% of all the cane produced in the world”
According to information from Bonsucro, which brings together non-governmental organizations like the WWF and companies like Cargill, Shell e Coca-Cola, 2,04% of sugarcane grown around the world has already received the entity's certification seal, based in london. This is equivalent to the production of 30,5 million tons of sugar cane, which when processed can be converted into 2,2 million tons of sugar and 1,6 million liters of ethanol per year.
Original text unica.com.br