Who Benefits

The SCI approach aims to benefit all stakeholders along global supply chains including producers and producer organizations, private sector stakeholders, policy makers, sustainability standards and initatives and consumers.

Producers and Producer Organizations:
The SCI's project based approach seeks to enable direct capacity building for producers to access sustainable markets including;

• Basic improvements in business management capacity ranging from internal quality control to financial management. Improved capacity helps producers become stronger suppliers and increases their likelihood of successful compliance to sustainable production methods.
• Improved access to information on sustainable markets and initiatives helps producers differentiate between standards, understand the costs and benefits associated and make more informed decisions when choosing the sustainable production method that best suits their business.

Private Sector Stakeholders:
The SCI provides stakeholders with strategic and neutral guidance on sustainability approaches that they can incorporate directly into their sourcing strategies.

• Improved access to information on producer needs and corresponding technical assistance helps private sector stakeholders secure stable supply of sustainable products while ensuring maximum sustainability impacts.
• Improved management efficiency at the producer level helps reduce costs for other supply chain actors.

Policy Makers:
Public decision makers benefit from fact-based information though SCI research and project evaluation as well as policy guidance.

• The SCI's uniquely objective and neutral approach helps facilitate effective policy making.
• SCI projects and initiatives provide a direct opportunity for policy makers to stimulate convergence, efficiency and overall development of the voluntary sector without interfering with markets by supporting one sustainability brand over another.

Standards and Initiatives:
Standards and other voluntary initiatives can benefit in several different ways:

• The SCI provides a basis for benchmarking actual impacts and identifying opportunities for continual improvement.
• The SCI builds the technical assistance and finance basis to enable growth in markets related to sustainability initiatives.
• SCI initiatives and policy recommendations provide a framework for stimulating the overall growth and effectiveness of voluntary initiatives in meeting their sustainability objectives.

Consumers:
Consumers benefit from improved information on the impacts of their consumption decisions while improving the efficiency of the initiatives available on the marketplace.